iW 


IMiRWMNiM 


ON 


EDWIN  A.McALPIN  JR. 


B^MBWaHliWWWHMaMMMtettBIMttKWg^^ 


■'i'lwli'il 


iiiil 


"?.  /?.  /*?, 


^^  ttlt  Olljpologtra/  ^ 


1^^  PRINCETON,  N.J.  ^, 


resented  byT?e\(.  cM .  TC\  .T?ob\naon 


BR  125  .M23  1919 
McAlpin,  Edwin  Augustus 

1874- 
On  to  Christ 


ON    TO     CHRIST 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  THE  NEW  ERA 


ON  TO  CHRIST 

THE    GOSPEL    OF    THE    NEW  ERA 


BY 

EDWIN   A.   McALPIN,  Jr.,  D.D. 

PRESIDENT   OP   THE   COI-LEGE  BOARD    OP  THE 
PUESBYTEKIAN  CHDllCH,  U.  S.  A. 


/ 


SEP  m  191,0 


NEW  ^%S^  YORK 
GEORGE   H.    DOR AN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1919 
By  George  H.  Doran  Company 


Printed  in  tJie  United  States  of  America 


TO  MY  WIFE 

MY  MOST  CONSTANT  BUT 
EVER  KINDLY  CRITIC 


INTRODUCTION 

THE   PEESENT   CRISIS 

^  fnp\  HE  Past  is  the  foundation  on  which  we 
I     work.    The  Present  is  our  field  of  activity. 

The  Future  is  what  we  work  for.  j 
In  facing  the  present  Crisis  of  Christianity 
in  entering  the  New  Era  we  must  keep  these 
facts  clearly  in  mind.  The  Church  cannot  af- 
ford to  spend  its  energy  and  strength  in  merely 
conserving  the  things  of  the  Past.  The  foun- 
dation has  been  well  laid,  and  we  do  not  have 
to  worry  about  it.  We  can  learn  some  lessons 
from  its  mistakes  and  in  faith  we  must  go 
ahead  and  build.  The  Future  is  hidden  in  the 
mist,  but  through  the  mist  we  catch  glimpses 
of  prominent  features  and  probabilities;  keep- 
ing our  eyes  on  these  things  we  must  forge 
ahead.  The  Present  is  filled  with  perplexities 
and  opportunities.  We  may  make  many 
blunders,  but  only  the  coward  will  falter,  as 
the  greatest  blunder  of  all  is  to  do  nothing. 
We  must  see  as  clearly  as  possible,  think  deeply 
and  act  quickly.  The  crisis  is  upon  us  and 
failure  now  is  irreparable.    We  must  go  for- 

vii 


viii  Introduction 


ward,  and  our  motto  should  be  *'Oii  to  Christ. '* 
There  are  some  people  who  have  failed  to 
grasp  the  significance  of  the  rapid  changes  that 
are  taking  place  in  our  civilisation  and  religious 
ideas.  They  expect  to  return  to  pre-war  times 
shortly  after  peace  has  been  declared.  They 
do  not  realise  that  the  war  has  destroyed  many 
things  besides  the  economic  life  of  Belgium  and 
the  dynasties  of  Europe.  They  fail  to  realise 
the  effect  that  the  army  training  and  war  experi- 
ences will  have  on  America.  They  fail  to  take 
account  of  spiritual  influences  that  are  bound 
to  follow  on  the  world-wide  upheaval  that  has 
taken  place. 

HOne  of  the  cardinal  sins  of  the  Church  is  her 
desire  to  walk  forward  while  she  keeps  her  eyes 
on  the  past.  She  has  been  so  deeply  interested 
in  her  study  of  the  faith  of  the  Fathers  that  she 
has  often  forgotten  that  her  main  duty  is  to 
create  the  faith  of  their  sons.  The  faith  of  the 
Fathers  was  all  right.  It  served  to  make  them 
men  of  God  and  it  was  the  cradle  of  true  democ- 
racy. That  same  faith  needs  to  be  applied  in 
a  new  way  to  meet  the  problems  of  the  New 
Era.! 

The  Church  has  been  trying  to  go  ahead  like 
a  man  who  walks  forward  with  his  head  twisted 
over  his  shoulder  and  his  eyes  fixed  on  an  object 
far  behind  him.     A  man  walking  in  that  un- 


/ 


Introduction  ix 


natural  way  cannot  keep  a  straight  line — neither 
can  a  Church.  He  will  bump  into  every  object 
that  crosses  his  path — so  will  the  Church.  He 
will  hurt  himself  and  many  others  on  the  street 
— so  will  the  Church. 

The  time  has  come  for  the  Church  to  turn  her 
eyes  to  the  front — this  means  getting  her  atten- 
tion on  the  future.  "^Here  is  our  real  problem. 
Will  the  Church  be  big  enough  and  strong 
enough  to  stamp  its  character  on  the  new  civili- 
sation that  is  being  born  out  of  the  world  travail 
of  the  present  time?  If  it  fails  the  world  will 
suffer  a  great  loss.  It  will  be  due  to  the  weak- 
ness of  the  ecclesiastical  mind  and  the  preju- 
dices of  those  who  are  unwilling  to  learn  new 
spiritual  truths.  It  cannot  fail  if  the  men  of 
the  Church  really  know  the  power  and  purpose 
of  Christ.) 

The  war,  with  its  terrific  loss  of  life,  destruc- 
tion of  property,  overturning  of  dynasties,  and 
social  upheavals,  has  affected  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  whole  world.  In  the  general  re- 
adjustment of  the  processes  of  production  and 
social  relationships  the  ideas  of  thinking  men 
are  bound  to  change.  Religious  conceptions  are 
sure  to  feel  this  influence.  If  Christianity  con- 
tinues to  cling  to  the  past  and  fails  to  apply  the 
truth  to  new  conditions  in  a  practical  way,  she 
will  fail  to  stamp  her  character  on  the  institu- 


Introduction 


tions  and  policies  that  will  affect  the  spiritual 
life  of  millions  of  people  as  yet  unborn. 

The  Purpose 

The  object  of  this  study  is  to  bring  home  to 
all  thoughtful  minds  some  of  the  problems  of 
the  Church  in  dealing  with  the  opportunities  of 
the  New  Era.  An  effort  is  made  in  the  first 
half  of  this  book  to  point  out  the  failures  of 
the  past,  and  then  in  the  last  half  we  try  to 
show  how  the  Church  can  meet  these  problems 
in  a  practical  way.  The  problem  is  outlined  in 
the  first  chapter  and  then  different  phases  of  it 
are  discussed  with  suggestions  of  how  they 
should  be  met  in  the  following  chapters.  In  the 
Second  Part  we  make  some  practical  sugges- 
tions on  the  reconstruction  of  the  Church's  life 
and  thought.  Some  of  these  solutions  may 
seem  radical,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that 
structural  weaknesses  cannot  be  permanently 
repaired  by  superficial  patches.  The  structure 
must  be  rebuilt  and  the  weakness  must  be  elimi- 
nated. It  may  be  impossible  to  get  unanimous 
support  for  suggestions  that  seem  to  affect 
whole  ecclesiastical  organisations,  but  no  other 
alternative  seems  adequate  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  New  Era. 

For  years  the  Church  has  been  talking  Feder- 


Introduction  xi 


ation  and  Unity.  The  time  has  come  to  stop 
talking  and  make  some  experiments  in  Federat- 
ing our  religious  forces  and  unifying  their  work. 
This  cannot  be  done  at  once  in  every  field,  but 
it  can  be  worked  out  in  sparsely  settled  com- 
munities where  the  multiplication  of  Protestant 
churches  merely  breeds  or  continues  petty  local 
jealousies.  The  number  of  weak  and  struggling 
churches  is  more  often  a  disgrace  to  the  denom- 
ination that  supports  them  than  a  credit  to 
its  Christian  statesmanship,  as  many  weak 
churches  could  be  eliminated  by  uniting  differ- 
ent Protestant  organisations  in  sparsely  settled 
communities. 

It  is  possible  to  outline  the  theological  con- 
ceptions that  must  control  this  movement  with- 
out trying  to  write  a  creed.  If  such  a  creed  is 
needed  it  can  be  worked  out  by  theologians  of 
spiritual  vision  and  broad  sympathy.  It  will 
be  another  interesting  document  for  future  gen- 
erations to  study  and  then  pigeonhole.  'The 
true  Creed  of  Christ  is  written  in  His  life  and 
work,  and  it  must  be  rewritten  anew  in  the  life 
of  each  generation  for  itself.  J 

The  purpose  of  this  study  is  to  show  that  the 
Christianity  of  Christ  was  broader  and  more 
spiritual  than  the  creed  of  any  Church.  The 
creeds  are  merely  man's  efforts  to  define  what 
their  authors  believed  was  Christ's  interpreta- 


xii  Introduction 


tion  of  religion.  They  are  limited  by  the  scien- 
tific knowledge  and  philosophical  conceptions  of 
the  age  in  which  they  were  written^  It  is  hoped 
that  some  men  who  have  mistaken  the  defini- 
tions for  the  things  that  were  being  defined  will 
realise  that  they  too  can  join  with  the  Church  in 
the  spiritual  work  of  saving  the  world  and 
establishing  it  in  the  righteousness  of  Christ. 

In  solving  the  problems  of  the  New  Era  the 
world  needs  the  guidance  and  wisdom  of  God. 
The  only  way  that  we  can  get  into  touch  with 
the  mind  of  God  is  through  prayer,  and  there- 
fore the  Church  must  cultivate  in  its  people  as 
never  before  the  habit  of  prayer.  If  life  is 
spiritual  and  the  solution  of  its  problems  is 
only  found  in  spiritual  help,  we  should  guard 
against  thinking  of  this  life  and  the  life  beyond 
the  grave  as  being  two  different  lives.  Life  is 
one.  Therefore  the  Church  cannot  limit  its 
message  to  this  world.  Men  need  a  practical 
application  of  the  Gospel  of  Eternal  Hope  to 
heal  their  wounded  hearts. 

The  culmination  of  the  criticisms  made  and 
the  efforts  at  reconstruction  offered  comes  in 
the  last  chapter,  where  the  keynote  of  our  con- 
clusion is  found  in  the  phrase  **0n  to  Christ." 
This  is  not  merely  a  new  shibboleth,  it  is  also 
a  program  of  work.  It  means  a  truer  inter- 
pretation of  Christ  and  a  more  thoroughgoing 


Introduction  xiii 


effort  to  follow  His  leadership    and  to  avail 
ourselves  of  His  power. 

The  Sources 

The  material  for  this  study  has  been  drawn 
from  the  author's  own  experiences  in  different 
fields  of  Christian  work.  It  was  his  privilege 
to  act  as  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Director  of  Religious 
Work  at  one  of  the  army  cantonments  for  three 
months.  The  duties  of  this  position  brought 
him  into  close  personal  contact  with  the  chap- 
lains, camp  pastors,  and  all  the  religious  work 
in  the  cantonment.  This  position  was  the 
strategic  centre  of  all  the  religious  work  in 
camp  and  gave  a  unique  opportunity  for  see- 
ing both  its  details  and  also  its  larger  outlines. 

The  writer  has  also  visited  a  number  of  camps 
as  a  preacher  or  lecturer.  These  experiences 
have  broadened  the  impressions  gained  by  the 
intensive  study  of  the  religious  life  of  one  camp. 

The  men  in  camp  gave  a  unique  opportunity 
to  study  the  opinions  and  interests  of  the  men 
of  the  country.  They  were  just  ^^home  folks,'' 
but  they  showed  how  the  masculine  element  of 
home  folks  really  felt  and  thought. 

The  author  spent  a  good  part  of  five  years 
during  his  student  days  in  a  social  settlement 
with  all  the  problems  of  a  great  city  seething 


xiv  Introduction 


by  the  door.  For  several  years  while  pastor  of 
a  city  church  he  had  the  privilege  of  acting  as 
chairman  of  the  committee  that  had  charge  of 
the  Home  Mission  work  of  a  whole  State. 
This  position  revealed  the  inside  problems  of 
many  village  and  country  churches.  These  ex- 
periences laid  the  foundation  for  the  ideas 
expressed  in  the  following  pages,  which  are 
illustrated  by  incidents  from  actual  life. 

The  chapter  on  the  **  Crystallisation  of  the 
Eeligion  of  the  Inarticulate"  has  been  based  on 
personal  experiences  in  several  places  and  a 
study  of  books  written  by  men  who  have  known 
the  soldier  in  the  trenches.  Donald  Hankey's 
Student  in  Arms  (both  series),  Chaplain  Tip- 
lady's  The  Cross  at  the  Front,  Papers  from 
Picardy  by  Two  Chaplains,  and  The  Heart  of  a 
Soldier  by  Laughlan  Maclean  Watt  are  some  of 
the  books  used.  The  opinions  expressed  as  to 
the  significance  and  importance  of  the  cam- 
paign of  education  carried  on  by  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  welfare  organisations  of  the 
Army  are  based  on  actual  experiences  in  this 
work. 

Although  the  writer  has  had  no  opportunity 
to  know  our  men  at  the  front,  he  rejoices  in  the 
privilege  of  having  spent  enough  time  in  one 
cantonment  to  really  know  the  spirit  of  our 
National  Army. 


Introduction  xv 


Where  use  has  been  made  of  the  observations 
of  studies  of  others  this  is  indicated  in  the 
text.  The  author  regrets  that  they  cannot  be 
mentioned  by  name,  but  their  personal  request 
for  obviously  good  reasons  has  made  this 
impossible. 

The  incident  quoted  in  the  chapter  on  **  Prac- 
tical Work  in  the  Army  and  at  Home'^  to  illus- 
trate the  chasm  between  labour  and  capital  is 
not  intended  as  a  reflection  on  the  labour  move- 
ment. The  writer  believes  in  organised  labour. 
This  incident  is  merely  used  in  an  effort  to 
awaken  the  mind  of  the  Church  to  the  serious- 
ness of  the  misunderstanding  that  exists  be- 
tween these  groups  at  the  present  time.  The 
whole  future  of  the  world  depends  on  getting 
these  two  antagonistic  classes  into  a  different 
mental  attitude  toward  each  other.  The  Church 
is  the  only  institution  that  can  do  this. 

The  chapter  on  ^* Practical  Immortality"  re- 
ceived some  suggestions  from  the  article  that 
appeared  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly  in  the  spring 
of  1918  on  **The  New  Death"  by  Winifred 
Kirkland.  Just  how  much  is  due  to  this  article 
is  doubtful,  but  it  is  a  pleasure  to  confess  the 
stimulus  it  gave. 

It  is  impossible  to  go  into  more  detail  as  to 
where  these  thoughts  have  come  from.  They 
have    been    inspired    by    books,    magazines, 


xvi  Introduction 


articles,  conversations,  and  the  present  condi- 
tions in  the  world. 

This  little  study  deals  with  big  things.  It  is 
not  expected  that  the  Protestant  Churches  can 
be  moved  at  once  to  make  any  radical  readjust- 
ments to  meet  the  problems  of  the  New  Era.  It 
is  hoped  that  a  brief  statement  of  actual  condi- 
tions can  stimulate  discussion  and  awaken  criti- 
cism. Out  of  this  discussion  and  criticism  some- 
thing practical  may  come. 

In  conclusion  I  desire  to  acknowledge  the 
courtesy  of  the  editors  of  The  Continent  and 
The  Presbyterian  Advance  in  allowing  me  to 
use  material  that  has  appeared  from  time  to 
time  as  articles  in  their  magazines. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 

THE  past:  its  weakness  and  failures 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    The  Church  's  Peril  and  Its  Cause      21 
II     The  Church  and  Her  Men     .       .       42 

III  The  Weakness  of  the  Denomina- 

TivONAL  Appeal       ....       60 

IV  The  Need  of  a  Practical  Chris- 

tianity       81 

V    Crystallising  the  Religion  of  the 

Inarticulate 99 

PART  II 


the  future  :  its  hope  and  promise 

VI  The  Return  of  Faith 

VII  Spiritual  Orthodoxy 

VIII  The  Power  of  Prayer 

IX  Practical  Immortality 

X  On  to  Christ     . 


115 
125 
144 
156 
167 


PART   I 

THE  PAST:    ITS    WEAKNESS 
AND   FAILURE 


THE   church's  peril  AND  ITS  CAUSES 


THE  Churches  of  America  are  facing  at 
this  time  the  possibility  of  one  of  the 
greatest  failures  in  history. 

The  whole  nation  is  seething  with  spiritual 
unrest  and  vague  aspirations  and  almost  no 
one  is  looking  to  the  Church  for  a  solution  of 
his  problems.  This  is  a  blunt  statement  of  an 
unpleasant  fact,  but  it  sometimes  takes  a  shock 
to  shake  the  easy-going  self-confidence  of  our 
church  people  and  their  spiritual  leaders.  There 
is  a  tendency  to  always  evade  an  unpleasant 
situation  by  plausible  excuses  and  it  is  only  by 
holding  before  our  eyes  these  unpleasant  facts 
that  we  realise  the  danger  that  confronts  the 
Church. 

In  recent  months  there  has  been  a  noticeable 
falling  off  in  church  attendance  in  one  of  our 
typical  Eastern  States.  The  secretary  of  an 
Inter-Church  society  reports  that  on  his  trips 
throughout  the  State  he  finds  small  congrega- 
tions and  discouraged  ministers  everywhere. 
The  superintendent  of  Home  Missions  of  one 

71 


22  On  to  Christ 


Protestant  denomination  in  this  State  reports 
that  he  has  noticed  the  same  situation  in  the 
churches  under  his  care.  Here  we  have  the 
observations  of  two  men  on  the  spiritual  life 
of  a  whole  State.  This  does  not  represent  a 
neglected  field,  as  in  this  area  there  are  at  least 
four  theological  seminaries.  Some  people  may 
try  to  explain  this  situation  by  saying  that 
the  people  in  this  State  have  been  so  much 
occupied  in  the  war-welfare  work  that  they  have 
no  time  for  church  attendance.  That  is  an 
explanation  that  does  not  explain.  If  the  people 
had  felt  the  need  of  the  spiritual  help  that  their 
churches  gave,  their  activities  in  behalf  of 
others  would  have  made  them  go  to  church  and 
not  kept  them  away. 

This  same  lack  of  interest  in  the  Church's 
spiritual  message  is  shown  by  the  kind  of  books 
that  people  are  reading.  People  read  the  books 
that  either  interest  or  help  them.  The  pub- 
lishers of  religious  literature  say  that  there  is 
no  interest  in  this  country  in  any  books  that 
deal  with  the  spiritual  lessons  of  the  war.  Peo- 
ple simply  will  not  read  them.  Here  we  find 
the  greatest  war  of  history  closing  and  the 
people  of  our  country  absolutely  indifferent  to 
its  spiritual  lessons.  This  lack  of  church  attend- 
ance and  indifference  to  the  lessons  from  the 
war  show  the  state  of  mind  that  the  Church 


The  Church's  Peril  and  Its  Causes     23 

■  — ■ 

must  deal  with  in  its  effort  to  awaken  the  con- 
science of  America. 

For  a  clear  understanding  of  the  situation 
that  confronts  the  Church  it  is  necessary  to 
review  the  things  that  have  caused  it. 

America's  Lack  of  Spiritual  Reaction 

With  all  our  sacrifices  in  the  use  of  food  sub- 
stitutes and  in  saving  the  money  we  wanted  to 
spend  so  as  to  buy  our  share  of  bonds  and  in 
giving  the  money  we  wanted  to  save  to  help  the 
Red  Cross  and  Y.M.C.A.  we  have  not  felt 
the  burden  of  the  war  enough  to  cause  a  spirit- 
ual reaction.  The  shortages  of  wheat  and  sugar 
were  merely  temporary  inconveniences.  Our 
purchase  of  United  States  bonds  was  too  good 
an  investment  to  be  called  a  sacrifice  and  the 
sums  we  gave  to  the  Red  Cross  and  Y.M.C.A. 
were  not  excessive. 

"We  entered  the  conflict  at  just  the  right 
moment  and  the  heroism  of  our  Army  in  one 
short  severe  campaign  was  the  turning-point  of 
the  conflict.  If  this  struggle  had  continued  for 
several  years  and  if  the  loss  of  life  in  our 
forces  had  reached  the  same  proportion  of  our 
population  as  it  did  in  England  and  France, 
the  horror  would  have  sunk  deeply  into  our 
soul.    Men  would  have  been  forced  to  think  of 


24  On  to  Christ 


God.  They  would  not  have  gloried  so  much  in 
their  own  power,  as  they  would  have  been  forced 
to  realise  their  own  weakness. 

There  is  grave  danger  that  a  spirit  of  self- 
satisfaction  will  be  developed  instead  of  a  spirit 
of  humility.  The  danger  of  having  our  spiritual 
life  weakened  and  side-tracked  is  so  imminent 
that  it  is  startling,  and  yet  we  are  just  as  blind 
to  this  danger  as  we  were  to  the  German  ava- 
lanche of  August  1,  1914. 

This  weakened  spiritual  interest  is  not  caused 
entirely  by  the  lack  of  reaction  to  the  war  stim- 
ulus. It  is  too  deep-seated  a  malady  to  have 
grown  up  in  three  or  four  years.  The  influences 
that  affect  the  religious  life  and  thought  of  a 
nation  have  to  be  studied  for  a  period  of  thirty 
or  forty  years  to  be  understood,  as  religious 
ideas  spread  slowly  and  take  time  to  affect  a 
nation. 

During  the  period  preceding  the  Great  War 
there  were  several  causes  at  work  that  were 
weakening  the  spiritual  hold  of  the  Churches 
on  the  life  of  the  nation. 

The  Critical  Controversy 

The  first  of  these  was  the  critical  controversy 
that  has  been  going  on  among  theologians.  The 
introduction  of  the  scientific  method  of  study  in 


The  Church's  Peril  and  Its  Causes     25 

Biblical  subjects  has  overturned  some  things 
that  were  held  to  be  sacred  by  an  older  genera- 
tion. This  method  of  study  caused  ministers 
to  take  sides,  and  the  controversy  raged  merrily 
over  the  question  of  whether  we  have  a  Penta- 
teuch or  a  Hexateuch ;  whether  Moses  wrote  the 
first  five  books  of  the  Old  Testament  or  whether 
they  were  a  compilation  from  other  authors 
showing  in  many  places  the  hand  of  an  editor. 
The  questions  of  the  historicity  of  Daniel  and 
Jonah  have  filled  the  minds  and  ears  of  many 
thoughtful  Christians  to  such  an  extent  that 
they  have  entirely  forgotten  the  messages  con- 
tained in  the  books  they  were  quarrelling  over. 
This  whole  controversy  has  taken  up  energies 
that  might  have  been  better  used  in  trying  to 
make  clear  the  personality  and  work  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  theories  of  the  students  and  the 
investigations  of  the  scholars  have  constantly 
been  aired  from  the  pulpit  before  they  were 
completely  worked  out.  These  investigations 
have  their  place  in  the  study,  but  they  should 
be  kept  there.  When  properly  used  they  form 
a  valuable  background,  but  when  used  contro- 
versially they  only  create  mental  uncertainties 
and  spiritual  unrest.  The  champions  of  the  old 
theories  have  spent  more  time  in  defining  their 
theories  than  in  trying  to  make  men  see  a  living 
Saviour.    They  did  not  think  it  was  possible  for 


26  On  to  Christ 


a  man  to  know  Jesus  Christ  as  his  Redeemer 
unless  this  man  agreed  with  their  opinions  on 
the  books  of  Moses  and  Jonah.  Both  sides  unin- 
tentionally have  been  throwing  stumbling-blocks 
in  the  way  of  the  Church  and  preventing  the 
man  on  the  street  from  getting  a  grip  on  spirit- 
ual truth.  We  have  merely  accepted  some  of  the 
destructive  principles  of  the  scientific  method  of 
Bible  study  and  have  failed  to  assimilate  a 
spiritual  conception  of  Jesus  Christ. 

We  do  not  need  less  science  in  our  Bible 
study,  but  we  need  a  great  deal  more  spiritual 
assimilation.  We  have  fallen  into  the  old  sin 
of  the  Scribe  and  Pharisee  of  repeating  text 
on  text  and  quoting  authority  on  authority  and 
forgetting  the  spiritual  life  that  Christ  imparts. 

This  controversy  has  developed  four  different 
types  of  theologians.  They  do  not  classify 
themselves,  but  we  will  do  it  for  our  own  con- 
venience and  to  clarify  our  own  minds. 

First,  We  have  the  Liberal-Liberals,  occupy- 
ing the  extreme  Right  in  this  controvers5\  They 
accept  every  scientific  conclusion  and  many 
conclusions  that  are  only  called  scientific.  They 
are  not  only  severely  critical  in  their  Bible 
study,  but  they  have  also  lost  their  sense  of 
spiritual  values.  They  have  no  use  for  anything 
that  seems  mystical  and  is  beyond  the  analysis 
of   their  intellectual    laboratories.     Many   of 


The  Church's  Peril  and  Its  Causes     27 

them  are  real  Trinitarians  in  their  theology  but 
are  so  vague  in  their  philosophy  that  they  fail 
to  give  any  adequate  help  to  the  spiritual  needs 
of  men.  They  are  the  champion  exponents  of 
good  works  and  reform  movements.  Their  loss 
of  spiritual  sense  has  created  a  white-heated 
humanitarianism.  You  find  them  opposing 
social,  economic,  and  civic  wrongs  and  working 
night  and  day  in  the  cause  of  human  better- 
ment. All  honour  them  for  their  zeal  and  activ- 
ity, but  the  man  of  deep  spiritual  interest  re- 
grets their  diminished  interests  in  the  spiritual 
side  of  Christ's  Gospel. 

Second,  There  is  another  group  that  has  often 
been  overlooked.  They  are  what  we  might  call 
the  Conservative-Liberals.  Their  fundamental 
intellectual  position  is  that  of  the  liberal  school. 
They  believe  in  and  practise  the  scientific 
method  of  Bible  study,  but  they  also  see  the 
hand  of  God  moving  in  a  unique  way  through 
the  life  of  the  Israelitish  nation.  They  do  not 
care  to  press  their  theory  as  to  the  authorship 
of  Old  Testament  books.  They  realise  that  the 
authors  may  be  unknown,  but  they  know  that 
God  spake  through  holy  men  in  times  past. 
They  are  striving  to  hear  God's  voice  and  inter- 
pret His  message  to  the  present  age.  Their 
object  and  interest  differ  a  good  deal  from  those 
that  we  have  called  the  Liberal-Liberals.    They 


28  On  to  Christ 


want  to  bring  Christ  as  a  Saviour  into  the  lives 
of  sinful  men.  They  desire  to  see  God's  King- 
dom established  on  earth,  but  they  also  want 
to  keep  the  spiritual  and  personal  emphasis 
which  Christ  gave  to  all  His  teachings. 

Third,  We  have  the  Liberal-Conservatives. 
These  are  the  men  whose  fundamental  theolog- 
ical conceptions  are  based  on  the  principles 
established  in  the  time  of  the  Reformation. 
They  are  honestly  convinced  of  the  traditional 
conception  of  the  Bible  and  the  authors  of  its 
various  books.  But  they  are  neither  hurt  nor 
troubled  by  those  who  have  reached  a  different 
conclusion,  for  they  are  men  of  liberal  spirit 
and  they  recognise  that  many  students  who  dis- 
agree with  them  on  questions  of  research  are 
absolutely  one  with  them  in  purpose  and  spirit. 
They  do  not  yield  one  iota  of  their  own  concep- 
tions, but  they  possess  large  minds  and  are  of 
such  a  deep  spiritual  nature  that  they  realise 
the  oneness  of  purpose  of  all  those  that  are 
working  for  Christ's  Kingdom,  even  if  their 
theological  opinions  widely  differ. 

The  spirit  of  the  Liberal-Conservatives  can 
be  best  shown  by  an  incident  that  happened 
some  years  ago  at  a  meeting  of  a  Presbytery. 
A  young  candidate  of  the  ultra-Liberal-Liberal 
type  had  been  examined  and  Presbytery  was 
preparing  to  vote  as  to  whether  he  should  be 


The  Church's  Peril  and  Its  Causes     29 

ordained  or  not.  One  of  the  men  of  strong  con- 
servative convictions  arose  and  said  that  he 
absolutely  disagreed  with  the  position  taken  by 
the  candidate  but  he  was  pleased  with  the  care- 
ful preparation  of  the  young  man  and  the 
clearness  of  his  statements.  This  conservative 
theologian  then  went  on  to  say  that  he  realised 
that  it  was  possible  for  men  to  hold  different 
opinions  and  still  work  together  in  the  same 
Church  and  he  was  prepared  to  vote  for  the 
young  man's  ordination  although  he  still  dis- 
agreed with  the  liberal  position.  Such  breadth 
of  spirit  is  not  only  commendable,  it  is  far 
more  than  that — it  is  an  indication  of  the  way 
theological  problems  should  be  solved.  The  bit- 
terness of  argument  is  conquered  by  the  spirit- 
uality that  lifts  men  above  their  own  opinions 
by  bringing  the  disputants  face  to  face  with  the 
Christ  they  both  serve. 

The  last  class  are  the  Conservative-Conserva- 
tives. They  are  conservative  both  in  theoretical 
conception  and  in  spiritual  practice.  They 
believe  in  the  verbal  inspiration  of  Scripture 
and  they  pronounce  anathemas  on  the  scien- 
tific-liistorical  method  and  all  who  practise  it. 
They  condemn  a  man  who  teaches  that  the 
Book  of  Jonah  is  a  divine  parable  containing  a 
great  spiritual  truth  if  he  fails  to  accept  the 
absolute  historicity  of  both  Jonah  and  his  book. 


30  On  to  Christ 


In  this  and  in  many  other  ways  they  exalt  the 
letter  of  the  law  far  above  the  spirit.  They  do 
not  like  to  burn  sinners  at  the  stake,  for  they 
are  not  brutal,  but  they  greatly  enjoy  holding 
them  up  to  public  scorn  not  merely  for  their 
own  edification,  but  also  for  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  the  sinner  squirm.  Like  their  predeces- 
sors, the  Scribes  of  the  time  of  Christ,  they 
are  great  students  of  Scripture  and  can  quote 
text  after  text  and  prove  themselves,  to  their 
own  satisfaction,  the  only  champions  of  God's 
Kingdom  on  earth.  They  are  out  of  touch  with 
reform  movements  and  they  continue  sounding 
out  the  old  shibboleths  much  to  their  own  satis- 
faction and  to  the  hampering  of  God's  message 
to  their  own  generation.  They  occupy  the 
extreme  Left  wing  of  Theology. 

The  unreasonable  attitude  of  the  Conserva- 
tive-Conservatives was  once  shown  when  two 
candidates  for  the  Gospel  ministry  were  being 
examined  for  ordination  by  another  Presbytery. 
One  of  them  was  a  good-hearted,  earnest  man 
of  no  education  but  of  fluent  speech.  He  could 
quote  the  Shorter  Catechism  and  the  Scriptures 
and  he  was  accepted  at  once.  The  other  had 
been  for  years  an  ordained  minister  in  another 
denomination.  He  was  a  college  and  seminary 
graduate  and  a  careful  student  of  philosophy 
and  theology.    He  explained  at  length  and  with 


The  Church's  Peril  and  Its  Causes     31 

great  care  his  theological  beliefs  and  gave  the 
reasons  why  he  thought  he  could  do  better  work 
in  the  Presbyterian  Church  than  in  the  denom- 
ination he  had  formerly  served.  For  several 
hours  one  or  two  men  heckled  him  and  exhorted 
Presbytery  on  the  danger  of  admitting  such  a 
man  into  their  midst.  The  leaders  of  this  oppo- 
sition were  men  of  mediocre  education  but  self- 
satisfied  in  their  orthodoxy.  They  missed  the 
glib  quotations  from  the  Shorter  Catechism 
and  Scriptures  and  were  hopelessly  out  of  their 
depths  in  the  philosophical  and  theological 
language  of  the  trained  student.  It  is  one  of 
our  misfortunes  that  the  Church  of  today  has 
to  contend  with  the  antagonisms  that  are  cre- 
ated by  men  of  this  type.  They  cannot  compre- 
hend any  point  of  view  but  their  own,  and  they 
try  to  force  all  minds  into  the  same  mould. 

The  hope  of  the  present  time  lies  in  the 
spiritual  message  of  the  men  that  occupy  the 
middle  ground  of  this  theological  controversy. 
The  Conservative-Liberals  and  the  Liberal- 
Conservatives  work  well  together,  and  from 
different  standpoints  seek  the  same  goal.  The 
extreme  Right  wing  and  the  extreme  Left  wing 
will  always  have  a  small  following,  but  the 
spiritual  problem  of  the  present  time  must  be 
worked  out  by  the  men  who  are  not  theological 
extremists. 


32  On  to   Christ 


America  is  tired  of  theological  theories  and 
America  wants  a  spiritual  power  to  grip  its 
soul.  The  arguments  and  controversies  that 
have  been  carried  on  by  these  different  parties 
have  made  the  laymen  turn  away  in  despair 
from  all  forms  of  Christianity  and  the  Churches 
are  suffering  from  this  spiritual  despair. 

Entertainment  Substituted  for  Inspiration 

There  is  another  tendency  that  has  existed  in 
recent  years  in  the  Churches  of  America  that 
has  destroyed  their  spiritual  power.  This  is 
the  tendency  to  substitute  different  forms  of 
entertainment  for  the  spiritual  inspiration  of 
Christ  and  His  truth. 

It  is  due  to  the  pleasure-loving  nature  of  the 
American  people  and  to  a  desire  on  the  part 
of  the  ministers  to  fill  their  churches.  The 
desire  to  have  a  full  church  is  a  laudable  one. 
No  eloquence  or  spiritual  power  can  affect 
empty  pews.  They  cannot  be  trained  into  a 
more  godly  walk  in  life  than  that  which  they 
already  practise. 

A  message  to  accomplish  results  must  be 
given  to  people  and  not  to  empty  pews.  When 
the  pews  began  to  empty  then  the  wide-awake 
minister  started  to  find  some  way  in  which  to 
fill  them.    In  some  cases  he  started  to  preach 


The  Church's  Peril  and  Its  Causes     33 

on  so-called  '* popular''  subjects.  He  dealt  with 
politics,  reform  movements,  and  present-day 
questions.  When  these  subjects  appealed  to  the 
imagination  of  his  community  he  would  find  an 
increase  in  his  congregation.  When  they  failed 
to  attain  this  result  he  often  instituted  other 
entertainment  features.  The  music  was  im- 
proved and  the  amount  of  it  was  increased.  The 
sermon  was  shortened,  and  instead  of  a  real 
sermon  with  a  real  message  we  had  sermonettes 
whose  only  virtues  were  their  brevity  and  their 
finished  rhetoric.  The  minister  had  uncon- 
sciously been  counting  the  number  of  people  in 
the  church  and  not  the  number  of  souls  that 
were  being  reached. 

The  Gospel  of  Christ  is  a  message  of  salva- 
tion and  not  an  entertainment  programme. 
Stereopticon  lectures,  moving-picture  shows, 
and  discussions  of  current  events  have  their 
place  in  the  programme  of  the  wide-awake 
church,  but  their  place  is  not  to  be  a  substitute 
for  the  Gospel  message  at  the  time  of  the  stated 
church  services. 

We  reduce  this  whole  programme  to  an 
absurdity  when  we  try  to  think  of  Isaiah  giving 
a  stereopticon  lecture  on  the  Flora  and  Fauna 
of  Palestine  or  Jeremiah  giving  a  moving- 
picture  show  of  the  Army  of  Israel  Passing  in 
Review  before  the  King.     Could  we  think  of 


34  On  to  Christ 


Jesus  of  Nazareth  inviting  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  to  listen  to  Him  while  He  discussed 
the  current  events  of  the  Eoman  Empire  at  the 
Passover  Feast?  Ilaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Jesus 
Christ  are  the  prophets  of  God  with  a  message 
to  the  souls  of  men.  Those  who  claim  to  be 
their  successors  need  the  same  power  and  the 
same  message  to  grip  the  heart  and  conscience 
of  their  own  generation. 

Experience  has  proved  time  and  time  again 
that  the  best  of  music  and  the  finest  stereopti- 
con  lecture  and  even  the  best  educational 
moving-pictures  fail  to  hold  the  interest  of 
the  people.  For  a  small  sum  of  money  they  can 
get  these  entertainments  at  any  time  they  so 
desire. 

»  There  is  no  other  place  but  the  church  where 
the  souls  of  men  can  get  the  training  of  God's 
Word  and  can  be  brought  into  touch  \vith  a 
living  Saviour.  Anxious  minds,  tired  hearts, 
and  sin-sick  souls  want  God.  The  church  is 
God's  agent  to  bring  His  message  to  His  chil- 
dren, and  when  it  substitutes  entertainment  for 
inspiration  it  loses  its  power  and  unconsciously 
people  look  upon  attendance  as  a  matter  to  be 
subordinated  to  their  own  convenience  and  lose 
the  habit  of  going  to  church  as  a  spiritual 
privilege  and  sacred  obligation.! 


The  Church's  Peril  and  Its  Causes     35 


The  Dangers  of  a  Lay  Religion 

There  has  also  been  growing  up  in  our  coun- 
try a  conception  of  Christianity  which  we  may 
call  that  of  **Lay  Religion.''  This  began  as  an 
effort  to  get  the  laymen  of  the  Church  inter- 
ested and  active  in  its  work.  This  effort  was  a 
good  one,  and  the  more  the  laity  work  in  the 
Church  the  better  it  is  for  the  Church  and  also 
for  the  men,  but  this  conception  of  Christianity 
developed  some  unfortunate  features.  While 
the  Church  needs  the  cooperation  of  all  her  men 
she  must  guard  them  against  a  conception  of 
Christianity  that  underrates  her  spiritual 
power. 

Men  commenced  to  talk  about  the  Church  as 
an  important  and  helpless  institution  that 
needed  to  have  business  methods  of  efficiency 
and  advertisement  introduced  to  save  it  from 
speedy  destruction.  The  ministers  were  uncon- 
sciously pictured  as  past  masters  of  inefficiency 
and  absolutely  incapable  of  working  out  their 
church  problems.  We  have  had  talks  on 
advertisement  methods  for  churches  and  the 
introduction  of  new  and  up-to-date  methods  of 
organisation  until  the  laymen  have  unintention- 
ally convinced  themselves  that  the  Church  with- 


36  On  to   Christ 


out  their  business  methods  would  fail  in  its 
mission. 

The  absurdity  of  this  idea  is  quickly  seen 
when  we  try  to  conceive  a  man  like  the  prophet 
Amos  engaging  a  publicity  expert  to  get  him 
an  audience  at  Bethel,  the  king's  chapel.  This 
poor  gatherer  of  the  sycamore  fruit  so  stirred 
the  hearts  of  that  people  that  the  crafty 
Amaziah,  high  priest  and  ecclesiastical  diplo- 
mat, begged  him  to  take  both  himself  and  his 
message  back  to  Judah,  as  such  burning  words 
were  not  fitting  for  such  an  aristocratic  spot. 
Amos  did  not  need  advertisement  or  business 
methods.  He  had  a  message  that  gripped  men's 
hearts  and  consciences,  and  when  they  heard 
it  they  were  mightily  stirred. 

It  is  possible  by  business  methods  and  careful 
advertisement  to  build  up  a  fictitious  success 
that  lasts  for  a  short  time,  i  The  real  success  of 
the  Christian  Church  comes  when  it  delivers  a 
message  that  rebukes  sin,  awakens  conscience, 
and  inspires  spiritual  aspirations  and  hope.  . 

The  laity  have  begun  to  feel  that  they  were 
not  in  as  much  need  of  the  Church  as  the  Church 
was  in  need  of  their  help.  Such  a  wrong  concep- 
tion destroys  the  compelling  power  of  the  moral 
conscience  and  creates  a  feeling  of  superiority 
in  the  laymen's  mind  and  is  destructive  to  all 
true  religion.     When  a  man  feels  that  he  is 


The  Church's  Peril  and  Its  Causes     37 

patronising  the  Church  by  his  presence  and  by 
his  work  and  fails  to  realise  his  own  personal 
need  of  a  Saviour  the  dynamic  of  Christianity  is 
gone.  This  spirit  gives  undue  prominence  to 
people  of  social  prestige  and  wealth  and  it  over- 
looks the  real  men  and  women  of  God  who  may 
not  have  a  great  deal  of  social  standing  or  much 
wealth  but  who  do  have  strong  souls  and  noble 
hearts. 

This  idea  of  a  Lay  Eeligion  has  done  more 
harm  than  we  realise.  Its  effects  are  seen  in 
the  spiritual  life  of  our  country  at  this  time. 
Every  one  wants  the  men  of  the  Church  to  be 
active  and  work,  but  they  should  realise  that 
the  Church  with  its  message  is  greater  than 
they  are  and  the  Church  is  honouring  them  by 
taking  them  into  spiritual  partnership. 

The  ministers  should  do  everything  in  their 
power  to  develop  the  laymen  by  the  organisation 
of  the  men  in  the  local  church  and  by  cooperat- 
ing with  all  such  movements  as  the  Laymen's 
Missionary  Movement  and  the  Men  and  Religion 
Movement,  but  at  the  same  time  the  minister 
should  oppose  any  tendency  to  belittle  or  ignore 
the  spiritual  authority  of  the  Church.  The  men 
must  not  be  discouraged  and  they  should  be 
taught  to  use  their  business  training  in  church 
work  so  as  to  conserve  and  emphasise  the  real 
meaning  of  the  Church,  which  is  spiritual. 


38  On  to  Christ 


The  Materialistic  Spirit 

The  last  of  the  things  that  have  been  weak- 
ening the  Church  which  we  will  have  time  to 
consider  is  the  Materialistic  Spirit.  America, 
as  has  often  been  said,  has  been  preeminently 
a  materialistic  nation. 

"We  are  here  using  the  term  ^^Materialistic 
Spirit"  to  define  that  love  of  pleasure,  based  on 
the  enjoyment  of  material  things,  which  as  a 
spirit  has  largely  prevailed  among  the  people 
of  this  country.  It  makes  the  rich  man's  son 
spend  his  time  in  playing  golf,  polo,  or  tennis ; 
it  makes  people  of  moderate  means  buy  an  auto- 
mobile before  they  can  afford  it,  in  some  cases 
going  so  far  as  to  mortgage  their  homes  so  as  to 
be  able  to  indulge  in  the  pleasure  of  motoring ; 
it  makes  the  poor  man  spend  all  his  earnings 
as  fast  as  he  gets  them  in  having  a  good  time. 

It  is  the  spirit  that  permeates  all  walks  of 
society  and  destroys  the  nation's  sense  of  the 
moral  obligations  imposed  by  personal  posses- 
sions. Money  is  considered  a  useful  thing  that 
gives  its  owner  the  right  of  enjoying  himself  as 
long  as  his  money  lasts.  This  spirit  destroys 
the  sense  of  responsibility  to  God  for  the  right 
use  of  our  possessions.  Unfortunately  this 
spirit  exists  in  this  country  in  the  mansions  of 


The  Churches  Peril  and  Its  Causes     39 

the  rich,  in  the  cottages  of  the  well-to-do,  and 
in  the  tenements  of  our  great  cities. 

This  spirit  is  a  natural  outgrowth  of  our  past, 
it  springs  from  the  personal  experience  of  our 
fathers  and  the  example  they  established.  Our 
fathers  had  to  solve  so  many  problems  in  over- 
coming the  difficulties  that  nature  presented  to 
them  in  their  efforts  to  create  a  civilised  nation 
that  they  unintentionally  became  absorbed  in 
this  struggle.  They  had  to  cut  down  the  forests, 
build  roads  and  railroads,  dig  out  the  coal  and 
iron,  and  span  mighty  rivers  with  their  bridges. 
They  had  to  build  homes,  villages,  and  cities 
to  make  the  wilderness  habitable.  In  one  cen- 
tury they  changed  a  wilderness  of  mountains, 
forests,  and  rolling  prairies  into  a  mighty  and 
well-organised  nation. 

All  the  energies  of  their  bodies  and  souls 
have  been  absorbed  in  this  struggle.  They  have 
been  often  wearied  to  the  point  of  exhaustion. 
Now  they  desire  to  enjoy  the  fruit  of  their 
labours  and  to  see  their  children  enjoy  it.  They 
want  things  to  be  pleasant  and  easy-going.  The 
drastic  demands  of  a  stern  moral  conscience 
repel  them.  Their  weakened  ideas  of  morality 
have  had  a  marked  influence  on  our  national  life 
and  have  established  dangerous  precedents. 

Sunday  has  become  their  day  of  rest  and  rec- 
reation.    They  give  their  week-days  to  hard 


40  On  to  Christ 


work  and  in  many  cases  to  those  movements 
that  seek  to  ameliorate  the  living  conditions  of 
their  less  fortunate  neighbours.  On  Sunday  they 
want  to  play  golf,  take  motor  trips,  attend  base- 
ball games,  or  seek  some  other  form  of  amuse- 
ment. They  simply  want  to  enjoy  themselves, 
and  in  many  cases  enjoy  themselves  without 
harm  to  any  one  else.  They  come  back  to  their 
toil  on  Monday  physically  rested  and  that  is 
all.  A  few  churches  have  given  a  quasi  approval 
to  this  conception  of  life.  These  people  have 
forgotten  that  God  meant  the  Sabbath  Day 
to  be  a  day  of  physical  rest  and  spiritual  rec- 
reation. It  is  not  enough  to  merely  enjoy 
ourselves  on  the  Sabbath  and  rest  our  bodies. 
If  we  are  to  keep  our  souls  alive  there  must  be 
some  periods  when  they  are  renewed  and 
refreshed.  The  Sabbath  was  intended  for  this 
purpose. 

The  soul  of  the  American  people  was  sleep- 
ing. Some  people  feared  that  it  was  dead,  but 
it  was  only  sleeping.  The  Great  War  awakened 
it  and  the  easy-going,  pleasure-loving  sons  of 
our  rich  men  proved  in  the  air,  on  the  battlefield, 
and  on  the  sea  that  they  were  made  of  the 
material  that  creates  martyrs  and  heroes.  It 
took  this  shock  to  galvanise  our  spiritual  life 
into  action  and  make  it  fully  awake.  These 
people  now  think  in  terms  of  patriotism  and 


The  Church's  Peril  and  Its  Causes     41 

loyalty.  Those  are  the  things  that  gave  them 
ideals  for  which  to  work  and  die. 

The  Church  must  catch  this  spirit  before  it 
goes  to  sleep  again,  if  we  are  to  save  our  coun- 
try from  another  generation  of  materialism. 
This  materialistic  spirit  has  weakened  the 
Church's  hold  and  makes  it  hard  for  the  Church 
to  do  its  work  at  this  time. 

But  materialism  has  been  weakened  by  the 
ideals  of  patriotism  that  have  been  brought 
forth  by  the  war.  It  can  be  completely  over- 
thrown by  a  clear  presentation  of  the  person 
and  power  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  things  that  we  have  been  considering, 
namely,  America's  Lack  of  Spiritual  Reaction, 
The  Critical  Controversy,  The  Substitution  of 
Entertainment  for  Inspiration,  The  Lay  Reli- 
gion, and  The  Materialistic  Spirit,  are  some  of 
the  things  that  hinder  the  Church's  spiritual 
work  and  prevent  men  from  looking  to  her  for 
guidance  at  this  time. 

These  things  have  all  worked  together  and  in 
different  ways  to  side-track  the  spirituality  of 
Christianity.  We  have  tried  to  substitute  many 
things  for  Christ's  appeal  to  the  conscience,  and 
they  have  all  failed. 

In  the  following  chapters  we  will  consider 
some  of  the  special  problems  that  confront  the 
Church. 


n 


THE   CHURCH   AND   HER  MEN 

THE  National  Army  cantonments  gave  a 
unique  opportunity  to  study  the  manhood 
of  America  as  the  Government  called  to 
the  colours  all  its  young  men  between  the  ages 
of  twenty-one  and  thirty-one,  except  the  phys- 
ically unfit,  the  mentally  incompetent,  and  the 
clergymen.  The  clergy  did  not  like  the  com- 
pany in  which  the  Government  placed  them,  and 
so  they  came  of  their  own  accord.  They  were 
present  by  scores  and  hundreds  in  every  camp 
either  as  chaplains  or  Eed  Cross  and  Y.M.C.A. 
workers  or  officers  and  privates.  When  the 
critic  of  the  Church  is  tempted  to  criticise  the 
ministry  because  it  was  exempted  by  the  Gov- 
ernment from  military  service,  let  him  remem- 
ber that  the  clergymen  did  not  accept  this 
exemption,  but  freely  and  of  their  own  volition 
volunteered  for  that  field  of  service  they 
felt  most  capable  of  filling.  So,  except  for  the 
physically  unfit  and  mentally  incompetent,  these 
cantonments  held  a  great  cross-section  of 
American  manhood. 

42 


The  Church  and  Her  Men  43 

They  contained  college  graduates  and  men 
who  could  not  write  their  own  names,  million- 
aires and  hod  carriers,  farmers  and  tenement 
dwellers,  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution 
and  men  who  could  not  speak  the  English  lan- 
guage. The  size  of  the  group  was  at  first 
appalling,  but  a  residence  there  showed  these 
men  to  be  just  like  the  men  you  meet  in  colleges, 
in  Social  Settlement  work,  on  the  farm,  or 
in  the  lumber  camps.  The  uniform  made  them 
all  look  alike,  but  they  were  still  individuals 
with  their  own  point  of  view  and  their  own  type 
of  character. 

A  longer  residence  and  better  acquaintance 
created  a  deeper  interest  and  a  growing  respect, 
as  a  finer  group  of  men  has  never  been  gathered 
together.  The  observer  could  see  the  real  man 
and  true  citizen  behind  the  broken  English.  The 
uniform  was  an  added  help,  as  it  is  surprising 
how  much  the  college  graduate  and  hod  carrier 
look  alike  when  they  are  dressed  in  the  same 
clothes. 

They  were  all  living  together  under  new  and 
peculiar  conditions,  and  the  ties  of  home  with 
its  customs  and  habits  were  broken.  You  could 
see  the  true  man  and  you  could  study  his  real 
interests.  There  has  never  been  such  an  oppor- 
tunity for  investigating  the  religious  interests 
of  a  nation's  manhood  and  the  lessons  learned 


44  On  to  Christ 


here  can  be  of  inestimable  value  to  the  Church, 
as  this  cross-section  of  our  men  brought  out 
clearly  some  of  the  most  interesting  and  sur- 
prising facts  concerning  the  religious  life  of 
America. 

The  Failure  of  the  Church  to  Hold  Her 
Young  Men 

The  most  surprising  thing  that  the  religious 
work  in  the  cantonments  showed  was  the  num- 
ber of  men  that  were  out  of  sympathy  with  all 
churches.  Many  of  the  ministers  spoke  of  the 
smallness  of  their  congregations  compared  to 
the  thousands  of  men  in  camp.  Apparently 
these  good  men  had  come  to  camp  with  the 
expectation  of  preaching  to  great  gatherings  of 
several  thousand  men.  In  another  place  we 
show  that  the  difference  between  the  number  of 
men  that  could  attend  the  services  and  those 
that  came  was  not  so  great  as  it  first  appeared. 
But  in  that  later  study  it  is  only  claimed  that 
from  thirty  to  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  Protestants 
in  camp  on  Sunday  with  nothing  else  to  do 
attended  any  services.  Is  the  Church  to  be 
satisfied  if  a  bare  half  of  her  men,  who  are 
otherwise  idle,  only  care  enough  for  Christianity 
to  go  to  a  brief  service  on  Sunday? 

The  chaplains,  camp  pastor,  and  Y.M.C.A. 


The  Church  and  Her  Men 


45 


workers  were  troubled  by  this  situation. 
Abnost  every  one  was  shocked  when  he  first 
took  up  the  work  by  the  number  of  men  that 
were  indifferent  to  the  services.  Familiarity 
with  small  congregations  in  time  dulled  their 
sensibilities.  They  had  to  face  a  difficult  situa- 
tion, and  they  made  the  best  of  it.  Their  first 
impression  was  one  of  surprise  and  disappoint- 
ment, and  that  is  the  thing  of  interest  to  us.  It 
showed  that  the  ministers  and  other  Christian 
workers  in  the  Army  thought  that  there  was  a 
deeper  interest  in  spiritual  things  among  the 
men  of  our  nation  than  they  actually  found  in 
the  religious  life  of  a  cantonment.  These  men 
were  intelligent  workers  in  their  own  churches 
at  home,  as  only  men  of  broad  interests  went 
into  this  work.  They  reflected  in  a  measure 
the  opinion  of  the  Church.  The  Church  has 
thought  that  more  men  were  interested  in 
Christianity  than  the  actual  experience  in  the 
cantonments  proved  to  be  the  case. 

The  question  immediately  arises  whether  this 
lack  of  interest  in  spiritual  things  was  due  to 
the  peculiar  atmosphere  of  army  life  or  whether 
the  grouping  of  men  in  a  cantonment  simply 
revealed  a  condition  that  already  existed  in  the 
church  at  home.  Has  the  Church  failed  to  hold 
her  young  men  in  the  past  to  the  extent  shown 
in  the  services  at  our  cantonments? 


46  On  to   Christ 


I  am  convinced  that  this  lack  of  interest  in 
religious  services  was  not  a  new  thing  for  our 
young  men.  It  was  merely  a  manifestation  of 
how  many  of  our  young  men  are  absolutely  out 
of  sympathy  with  the  Church.  If  we  eliminated 
all  men  over  thirty-one  and  under  twenty-one 
years  of  age  at  our  men's  meetings  at  home  we 
would  quickly  realise  this  fact.  These  meetings 
are  padded  with  old  men  and  boys  and  the 
scarcity  of  the  virile  young  men  is  overlooked. 
Most  of  the  young  men  seldom  darken  the  door 
of  a  church  at  home  and  they  would  not  go  to  a 
religious  service  at  camp. 

This  opinion  is  based  on  the  following  brief 
studies  all  of  which  point  to  the  same  con- 
clusion. 

The  Study  of  an  Officers'  Mess 

A  minister  went  to  one  of  the  cantonments  as 
camp  pastor.  He  spent  three  months  in  the 
work,  and  all  of  that  time  he  was  a  member  of 
the  same  officers^  mess.  He  had  very  pleasant 
and  friendly  relations  with  these  officers.  The 
night  before  he  left  camp  he  asked  them  if  they 
would  be  willing  to  fill  out  a  brief  questionnaire 
as  he  was  anxious  to  get  some  information  on 
the  religious  influences  and  tendencies  of  army 
life,  and  hand  it  in  without  signing  their  names. 


The  Church  and  Her  Men  47 

They  readily  granted  his  request  and  fifty-six 
of  them  filled  it  out.  A  summary  of  these  fifty- 
six  answers  has  been  placed  in  my  hands  and  a 
study  of  this  summary  shows  some  very  inter- 
esting things. 

Forty  of  those  who  filled  it  out  were  church 
members  and  sixteen  were  not  members  of  any 
church.  Their  church  preferences  covered 
eleven  denominations  and  five  had  no  church 
preference  at  all.  Forty  of  them  were  praying 
men  and  sixteen  did  not  pray.  One  answered 
this  question  as  ^'DoubtfuP'  and  another  said 
*  *  Not  of  late. ' '  Only  thirty-five  had  Testaments 
and  twenty-one  were  without  them. 

The  most  important  information  from  the 
standpoint  of  this  study  of  the  religious  life  in 
the  cantonments  was  contained  in  the  answers 
to  the  last  two  questions. 

The  fifth  question  was :  '^Does  army  life  make 
you  more  religious  or  less  ?  ' '  Out  of  the  fifty- 
six  questionnaires  filled  out  thirty-five  left  this 
question  unanswered.  Eleven  said,  *^ Neither." 
Six  thought  it  made  them  more  religious  and 
four  thought  it  made  them  less  so.  It  is  a  fair 
presumption  to  believe  that  the  thirty-five  who 
failed  to  answer  this  question  did  not  recognise 
any  definite  change  in  their  religious  life  due 
to  army  conditions.  This  added  to  the  eleven 
who  admitted  that  their  spiritual  interests  had 


48  On  to  Christ 


not  changed  and  the  almost  equal  division 
between  those  that  were  more  and  less  religious 
seems  to  show  that  life  in  a  cantonment  did  not 
seriously  change  a  man's  religious  convictions. 
It  was  possible  that  these  men  were  more  reli- 
gious, but  if  so  they  were  unconscious  of  it.  It 
was  a  religious  interest  not  defined  by  their 
preconceived  ideas.  It  would  be  something  not 
definable  by  church  services  and  religious 
habits.  There  are  other  things  in  army  life 
that  indicate  this  larger  spiritual  interest.  They 
will  be  discussed  later  in  our  study  of  the 
**  Crystallisation  of  the  Eeligion  of  the 
Inarticulate." 

The  sixth  question  was:  **What,  if  any,  ser- 
vice can  a  chaplain  render  you?"  Sixteen  left 
this  question  unanswered.  Two  said  that  the 
chaplain  could  render  them  no  service  and 
twenty-eight  looked  on  the  chaplain's  work 
favourably.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  only 
six  of  the  twenty-eight  that  believed  in  the 
chaplain's  work  defined  his  work  in  a  spiritual 
sense.  These  six  spoke  of  the  importance  of 
holding  religious  services.  All  the  others  indi- 
cated in  different  ways,  but  quite  clearly,  that 
they  thought  the  chaplain's  main  opportunity 
was  in  personal  contact  with  the  men  and  offi- 
cers, and  that  his  real  work  was  in  doing  prac- 
tical things  such  as  ** Personal  talks  with  indi- 


The  Church  and  Her  Men 


49 


viduals,"  *^ Setting  a  good  example/'  **  In  con- 
duct of  men, ' '  etc. 

Whatever  we  may  think  of  these  answers  it 
is  quite  evident  that  they  indicate  that  the  men 
of  this  mess  did  not  recognise  any  marked 
decrease  of  the  religious  interests  due  to  army 
life.  There  is  even  a  slight  tendency  to  show 
that  they  were  more  religious  than  at  home. 

There  were  the  same  number  of  praying  men 
as  there  were  church  members  and  not  all  of 
these  men  had  Testaments.  The  significant 
thing  in  this  connection  is  that  they  could  have 
had  a  Testament  by  merely  asking  for  one  at 
the  nearest  Y.M.C.A.  Hut.  They  could  not 
have  been  in  the  habit  of  reading  their  Bibles, 
for  if  they  had  they  certainly  would  have  had 
a  Testament,  as  it  was  the  easiest  book  to  get 
in  camp. 

The  only  conclusion  we  draw  from  this  study 
is  that  it  gives  no  indication  that  these  officers 
were  less  religious  in  camp  than  they  had  been 
at  home. 

The  Opinions  of  a  Soldiers'  Bible  Class 

Some  of  the  soldiers  who  knew  the  life  in  the 
barracks  by  actual  experience  thought  that 
army  life  increased  the  number  of  men  who 
attended  religious  services.     This  was  shown 


50  On  to   Christ 


by  a  discussion  on  this  subject  which  took  place 
in  a  Bible  class  held  in  a  mess  hall  in  Febru- 
ary, 1918. 

There  were  five  or  six  men  present,  and  all 
of  them  had  been  in  camp  for  three  or  four 
months.  They  were  clear-headed  men  who  had 
been  church  men  at  home.  They  agreed  with- 
out a  dissenting  voice  and  without  a  shadow 
of  doubt  that  more  men  attended  the  Sunday 
services  in  camp  than  ever  went  to  church  at 
home.  One  of  them  volunteered  the  further  in- 
formation, which  the  others  acquiesced  in,  that 
*^A  very  great  many  more  men  go  to  the  week- 
night  service  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  than  ever 
thought  of  going  to  prayer  meeting.''  It  is 
interesting  to  know  that  this  group  of  men  also 
thought  that  more  men  were  reading  their 
Bibles  and  praying  than  ever  did  these  things  at 
home.  It  was  almost  if  not  quite  impossible  to 
get  statistics  of  these  facts,  as  some  of  the  men 
only  read  their  Bibles  when  they  thought  no  one 
was  looking  and  others  prayed  under  their 
blankets  after  Taps.  The  amount  of  weight 
that  should  be  given  to  this  sort  of  testimony 
may  be  open  to  question,  but  the  opinion  of  the 
men  in  the  barracks  ought  to  be  worth  more 
than  the  superficial  observations  of  any  visitor, 
even  if  he  did  happen  to  live  in  the  camp.  Here 
again  we  get  evidence  that  the  absence  of  the 


The  Church  and  Her  Men  51 


men  from  the  religious  services  was  not  due  to 
the  conditions  of  camp  life.  More  were  going 
than  had  gone  before,  but  in  camp  the  small 
number  of  the  young  men  at  the  service  was 
emphasised  by  having  no  old  men  or  women  and 
children  to  fill  up  the  room. 

The  Honour  Roll 

Some  people  may  think  that  these  unpleasant 
facts  fit  some  other  church,  but  as  far  as  their 
own  church  is  concerned  they  are  satisfied  by 
the  number  of  names  that  it  has  on  its  honour 
roll. 

A  study  of  the  honour  rolls  of  a  number  of 
churches  shows  that  many  of  the  men  whose 
names  are  enrolled  there  are  really  out  of  touch 
with  the  church.  Most  pastors  have  placed  the 
name  of  every  man  that  has  left  his  parish  for 
service  in  either  the  Army  or  Navy  on  the  hon- 
our roll  of  the  church.  If  a  family  calls  on  a 
minister  to  conduct  their  funeral  services  or  to 
perform  their  marriage  ceremonies  they  are 
naturally  considered  a  part  of  that  parish. 
When  their  boy  has  been  called  to  the  colours 
they  like  to  know  that  his  name  is  on  the  honour 
roll  of  the  church.  The  churches  have  recog- 
nised this  desire  and  gladly  placed  these  names 
on  their  honour  rolls. 


52  On  to  Christ 


This  was  the  right  thing  to  do.  It  increases 
the  hold  of  the  church  in  these  homes  and  pre- 
vents the  family  from  having  their  feelings 
hurt.  No  one  wants  them  to  feel  that  their  son 
has  been  either  overlooked  or  ignored.  They 
are  often  sensitive  and  easily  hurt.  For  their 
sake,  and  also  as  a  possible  means  of  reaching 
these  men  when  they  come  home,  all  these 
names  should  be  put  on  the  honour  roll.  But 
the  Church  must  be  very  careful  not  to  draw 
erroneous  conclusions  from  the  number  of 
names  on  the  honour  roll.  Many  of  these 
names  simply  indicate  the  men  the  Church  ought 
to  have  reached  in  the  past  but  which  she  has 
failed  to  reach.  She  is  now  trying  to  reach 
them  by  friendly  sympathy  and  by  honouring 
them  for  their  service  to  our  country. 

A  questionnaire  was  recently  sent  out  to  all 
the  churches  of  a  nearby  Presbytery.  This 
group  of  churches  was  chosen  because  it  was 
certain  that  the  big  majority  of  them  would  take 
the  trouble  to  answer  the  questions.  It  included 
both  large  and  small,  strong  and  weak,  country 
and  suburban  churches.  It  represented  a  dis- 
tinctly American  church-going  community. 

Twenty-six  churches  answered  these  ques- 
tions. Two  of  them  did  not  tabulate  their 
answers  because  of  the  peculiar  local  conditions 
in  a  small  village,  the  honour  rolls  were  a  vil- 


The  Church  and  Her  Men  53 

lage  and  not  a  church  affair.  These  twenty-four 
answers  showed  that  the  churches  represented 
had  six  hundred  and  sixty-five  names  on  their 
honour  rolls.  One  hundred  and  ninety-five  of 
these  men  were  active  in  the  church  work. 
Three  hundred  and  fifty-one,  including  the 
active  church  workers,  were  regular  in  attend- 
ance at  church  services  and  two  hundred  and 
forty-six  seldom  or  never  attended  church. 
The  discrepancy  between  the  total  number  of 
those  who  attended  church  and  those  who  did 
not  attend  was  due  to  the  number  of  men  away 
from  home  either  at  college  or  at  work.  In  a 
number  of  cases  the  pastors  said  they  were  not 
in  close  enough  touch  with  these  men  because 
of  their  absence  from  home  to  know  about  their 
church  habits.  These  figures  are  startling.  Out 
of  the  six  hundred  and  sixty-five  names  on  the 
honour  rolls  of  these  churches  only  about  half 
of  them  are  known  to  be  regular  church  attend- 
ants and  two  hundred  and  forty-six  are  seldom 
or  never  at  church. 

This  study  of  the  honour  roll  of  twenty-four 
churches  shows  that  the  same  state  of  affairs 
exists  at  home  as  existed  in  a  cantonment.  The 
honour  roll  does  not  show  the  number  of  men 
that  have  been  interested  in  the  church.  It 
shows  instead  the  number  of  men  that  the 
church  is  interested  in.    Which  is  a  very  differ- 


54  On  to  Christ 


ent  thing.  It  shows  the  number  of  men  that  the 
church  is  responsible  for.  It  is  a  revelation  of 
the  churches'  opportunity.  A  study  of  the 
honour  roll  emphasises  the  churches'  failure  in 
dealing  with  men. 

Conclusion 

When  the  results  of  these  different  lines  of 
investigation  are  combined  we  get  their  full 
significance.  The  questionnaire  used  at  the 
officers'  mess  showed  that  that  group  of  men 
were  not  conscious  of  any  diminution  of  their 
religious  interest.  The  Bible  class  of  soldiers 
were  all  convinced  that  more  and  not  less  men 
were  attending  church  in  the  cantonment  than 
ever  went  at  home.  The  honour  rolls  of  twenty- 
four  churches  show  that  only  about  half  of 
these  men  are  at  all  regular  in  their  church  at- 
tendance and  less  than  one-third  of  them  are 
church  workers.  All  these  facts  seem  to  indi- 
cate that  the  Church  is  not  holding  its  young 
men. 

I  have  no  means  of  estimating  the  number  of 
men  that  do  not  happen  to  have  their  names  on 
the  honour  roll  of  any  church,  but  I  have  no 
doubt  that  it  is  a  goodly  proportion  of  all  the 
men  in  a  camp.  They  are  entirely  unchurched, 
and  no  church  has  a  feeling  of  responsibility 


The  Church  and  Her  Men  55 

for  them.    They  merely  increase  the  total  num- 
ber that  have  no  interest  in  Christianity. 

This  lack  of  interest  in  the  Church  was  shown 
in  other  ways.  At  one  of  the  cantonments  the 
Y.M.C.A.  secretaries  thought  it  would  be  a 
good  thing  to  occasionally  have  a  large  central 
service  for  all  the  men  in  camp  A  search  was 
made  for  clergymen  whose  reputation  would 
assure  a  large  attendance.  Preachers  could  be 
found  who  would  appeal  to  the  men  of  a  certain 
locality  or  to  a  few  men  of  a  particular  denom- 
ination, but  very  soon  it  was  discovered  that 
no  clergyman  was  of  sufficient  prominence  to 
appeal  to  all  the  men  except  the  Eev.  Billy 
Sunday.  They  simply  did  not  exist.  There 
are  eloquent  preachers  in  every  denomination 
that  can  pack  the  largest  city  church  every  time 
they  speak,  but  they  are  not  packing  the  church 
with  young  men  between  twenty-one  and  thirty- 
one  years  of  age,  and  that  is  what  the  churches 
have  overlooked. 

Organised  Bible  Classes 

The  effort  was  made  during  the  first  winter 
of  the  war  to  organise  Bible  classes  in  every 
company,  battery,  or  hospital  unit  in  a  canton- 
ment. There  were  eighty  of  these  classes  in 
the  camp  I  was  connected  with.   Every  week  the 


56  On  to  Christ 


men  in  charge  of  the  religious  work  would  meet 
to  discuss  their  problems.  One  of  the  constant 
problems  discussed  was  the  organised  Bible 
classes. 

They  were  continually  being  started  and  they 
were  continually  going  to  pieces.  We  worked 
and  prayed  and  planned,  but  all  to  no  avail. 
Army  life  was  blamed,  the  constant  transfer 
of  men  from  one  unit  to  another  added  to  the 
difficulty,  and  the  interference  of  extra  mili- 
tary duties,  such  as  going  on  guard  or  non- 
coms'  school. 

It  has  only  been  since  I  have  had  the  perspec- 
tive of  distance  and  time  that  the  real  reason  of 
this  failure  has  come  home  to  me.  Not  enough 
men  in  the  unit  were  interested  in  Bible  study 
to  make  it  successful.  In  a  company  of  a  hun- 
dred men  you  could  not  get  one  out  of  ten  who 
would  come  regularly.  This  is  nothing  new. 
The  Sunday  schools  are  all  strong  in  the  num- 
bers of  little  children  that  attend.  Just  count 
the  young  men  between  twenty-one  and  thirty- 
one  that  are  regular  in  their  attendance  and  do 
any  Bible  study  in  any  one  church  and  you  will 
be  shocked.  Eliminate  the  grey-haired  men  and 
the  boys  that  do  not  have  to  shave,  and  see  how 
many  men  are  left.  Even  our  men's  Bible 
classes  have  to  call  on  the  old  men  and  boys  to 
help  them  out. 


The  Church  and  Her  Men  57 

The  Bible  class  work  was  discouraging  in 
camp.  It  was  discouraging  because  we  had  no 
primary  or  beginner's  departments  to  comfort 
ourselves  with.  The  Church  needs  to  cease  com- 
forting herself  with  paltry  excuses  and  face 
her  problem  with  men. 

No  one  wants  to  be  charged  with  being  a 
pessimist,  but  every  one  should  be  willing  to 
face  unpleasant  facts  squarely  and  learn  how 
to  overcome  them.  We  have  drifted  along  dur- 
ing the  past  years  without  realising  where  we 
were  drifting  to.  The  war  has  come  with  a 
shock.  The  shock  will  pass  away.  Is  the  Church 
going  to  lull  herself  to  sleep  again  with  a  lot 
of  inane  and  pious  platitudes,  or  will  the  Church 
awaken  to  her  God-given  opportunity? 

If  the  Church  is  to  be  a  vital  power  in  the 
New  Era  that  is  dawning  its  message  has 
to  be  more  appealing  to  these  young  men. 
The  ancient  and  honourable  saints,  the 
old  standbys  and  the  occupiers  of  amen  pews 
are  all  right  in  their  place.  We  could  not  get 
along  without  them,  but  they  must  prove  their 
sainthood  and  consecration  by  modifying  cus- 
toms that  have  grown  sacred  through  long  years 
of  practice  so  as  to  make  their  churches  more 
appealing  to  the  young  men.  The  desires  and 
feelings  of  the  older  people  should  be  respected, 
but  the  Church  should  not  sacrifice  its  future 


58  On  to  Christ 


because  of  this  respect.  It  must  win  the  young 
men  or  die  of  dry  rot.  Every  church  or  church 
officer  that  hampers  the  minister  in  tackling 
this  job  is  hindering  God's  work  on  earth  and 
preventing  the  spread  of  the  true  Gospel  of 
Christ.  The  virile  young  manhood  of  our  nation 
must  be  won  for  Christ,  and  energy  and  e:ffort 
must  be  put  forth  to  this  end. 

We  have  too  long  looked  on  the  minister  as 
the  comforter  of  the  aged  and  sick.  We  need  a 
ministry  of  leaders  to  lead  men.  No  minister 
who  recognises  the  call  of  the  Master  wants  to 
ignore  the  dying  or  neglect  the  sick,  but  a  red- 
blooded  man  at  this  time  cannot  be  bound  down 
to  a  petty  round  of  daily  calls  and  small  talk 
and  keep  his  manhood.  A  living  church  will 
not  demand  it.  The  minister  whose  time  is 
filled  with  attending  the  socials  of  the  Ladies' 
Aid,  or  gossiping  with  the  Active  Workers  or 
any  other  society,  is  following  in  Nero's  steps 
and  is  fiddling  away  his  time  while  the  world 
burns. 

The  ministry  should  be  studying  how  to  make 
its  message  meet  the  needs  of  the  men  of  the 
New  Era.  The  laymen  should  be  planning  to 
remake  the  churches'  activities  so  as  to  appeal 
to  these  men.  Both  laymen  and  ministers  should 
recognise  the  failure  of  the  past  and  be  making 
new  plans  for  the  future. 


The  Church  and  Her  Men  59 

In  the  studies  that  follow  we  will  strive  to 
present  some  practical  solutions  for  the  prob- 
lem that  has  been  thrust  on  the  Church.  These 
conclusions  may  seem  radical.  The  problem 
is  so  vital  that  it  cannot  be  met  with  halfway 
measures. 

I  have  just  read  in  one  of  the  Church  papers 
{The  Continent,  November  28,  1918),  of  a  town 
of  ten  thousand  inhabitants  in  which  every  pul- 
pit is  vacant,  and  they  do  not  want  to  call  a 
single  minister.  They  think  that  the  Y.M.C.A. 
and  the  Red  Cross  give  them  all  the  religion 
they  need.  This  is  just  the  condition  we  can 
expect  at  home  in  many  more  places  unless  the 
Church  awakens  and  puts  off  her  old  habits  and 
adapts  herself  to  the  conditions  of  the  New 
Era. 


Ill 


THE   WEAKNESS   OF    THE   DENOMINATIONAL   APPEAL 

THE  religious  work  in  the  Army  showed 
clearly  how  little  interest  the  men  of  our 
country  have  in  any  form  of  denomina- 
tionalism.  In  the  cantonments  during  the  first 
year  of  the  war  the  various  denominations  held 
their  own  church  services  either  in  a  Y.M.C.A. 
building  or  in  some  well-located  place. 

At  one  of  the  cantonments  on  a  clear  Sunday 
morning  in  the  winter,  when  there  were  no  out- 
door sports  to  draw  the  men  away,  the  congre- 
gations at  three  Protestant  church  services  were 
counted:  at  one  there  were  twenty-three  sol- 
diers present;  at  another,  thirty-five;  and  at 
the  third,  seventy-five.  At  that  time  there  were 
about  twenty  thousand  men  in  camp.  To  get  a 
true  idea  of  the  percentage  of  the  men  inter- 
ested in  these  services  we  must  remember  that 
possibly  half  the  whole  number  were  Catholics 
and  about  fifty  per  cent,  away  on  leave  or  on 
duty.  Probably  the  three  churches  represented 
by  the  services  we  are  considering  did  not  have 
over  two-fifths  of  the  total  Protestants  in  their 

60 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     6i 

Communions.  After  due  consideration  has  been 
given  to  all  these  facts  we  find  that  only  one 
hundred  and  thirty-two  men  out  of  nearly  two 
thousand  with  nothing  else  to  do  cared  enough 
for  their  own  Church  to  attend  its  service.  This 
number  was  not  exceptional.  A  constant  over- 
sight of  these  services  for  three  months  proved 
it  to  be  the  average.  This  means  that  less  than 
nine  per  cent,  of  these  church  men,  who  were 
otherwise  idle  on  Sunday  morning,  attended 
their  own  denominational  services. 

This  was  true  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  one 
denomination  had  three  pastors  in  the  camp, 
another  had  two,  and  the  third  had  one.  These 
camp  pastors  were  earnest  workers  and  con- 
stantly visited  the  soldiers  in  the  barracks. 
They  emphasised  the  appeal  of  their  own 
Church  and  did  it  in  a  broad  way  that  did  not 
antagonise  the  men.  The  smallness  of  their 
congregations  cannot  be  accounted  for  by  their 
unpopularity  or  negligence.  Probably  the  most 
popular  one  of  them  had  the  smallest  congrega- 
tion. The  real  difficulty  was  the  soldiers'  lack 
of  interest  in  the  denominational  appeal. 

The  regimental  and  Y.M.C.A.  services 
showed  a  marked  difference  in  attendance  and 
emphasised  the  men's  indifference  to  denom- 
inationalism.  The  regimental  services  were 
conducted  by   the   chaplain   and   held  in   the 


62  On  to  Christ 


Y.M.C.A.  Huts.  The  attendance  here  depended 
largely  on  the  popularity  and  ability  of  the 
chaplain.  As  they  were  regimental  services 
they  were  not  denominational  in  any  sense  of 
the  word,  and  it  would  not  be  just  to  claim  that 
all  men  present  were  Protestants  just  because 
the  chaplain  happened  to  be  a  Protestant.  Prob- 
ably a  large  majority  of  those  attending  the 
services  of  a  Protestant  chaplain  were  Protes- 
tants, as  it  was  possible  for  all  the  Catholics  to 
attend  Mass  in  a  nearby  building.  I  attended 
one  service  where  the  chaplain  had  the  Band 
lead  the  singing  and  one  of  the  soldiers  recited 
the  Ninety-first  Psalm.  He  had  a  congregation 
of  about  four  hundred  men  by  actual  count. 
That  was  an  unusually  large  attendance  and 
some  exceptional  circumstances  accounted  for 
its  size.  After  eliminating  the  Catholics  who 
could  attend  Mass  if  they  so  desired,  and  giving 
due  regard  to  the  number  either  on  duty  or 
away  from  camp,  it  is  fair  to  estimate  that 
between  thirty  and  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  Prot- 
estants attended  these  services.  Such  things 
as  loyalty  to  the  regiment  or  personal  friendship 
for  the  chaplain  might  account  for  some  differ- 
ence of  attendance  at  these  services,  but  it 
would  hardly  account  for  so  great  a  difference. 
The  Y.M.C.A.  services  give  us  another  illus- 
tration of  the  same  thing.   Many  clergymen  that 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     63 

visited  the  camps  to  preach  for  the  Y.M.C.A. 
were  disappointed  by  the  number  of  men  at 
their  meetings.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  they 
did  not  have  crowded  buildings.  Every  one 
regretted  that  more  men  did  not  come  and 
everything  was  done  to  increase  the  attendance. 
The  visiting  clergymen  were  apt  to  forget  that 
the  area  of  each  building  was  limited.  In  a 
camp  of  twenty  thousand  soldiers  the  average 
building  would  only  have  about  two  thousand 
or  at  the  very  most  about  twenty-five  hundred 
men  in  its  area.  When  we  balance  these  figures 
and  subtract  the  Catholics,  and  those  on  duty 
or  on  leave,  we  find  the  building  had  only  about 
five  or  at  the  most  six  hundred  men  to  draw 
from.  The  average  attendance  at  these  ser- 
vices was  between  one  and  two  hundred.  This 
is  an  attendance  of  between  twenty  and  forty 
per  cent,  of  the  available  men.  This  is  very 
different  from  the  nine  per  cent,  that  attended 
the  church  services  of  the  various  denomina- 
tions. 

This  analysis  of  the  congregations  at  the 
services  in  this  cantonment  shows  that  three  to 
five  times  as  many  men  attended  the  undenomi- 
national services  as  attended  the  church 
services.  This  difference  was  constant.  Any 
variation  could  be  easily  explained  by  some 
peculiar  circumstances.     The  men  were  inter- 


64  On  to  Christ 


ested  in  Christianity,  but  they  were  indifferent 
to  all  forms  of  denominationalism. 

If  this  study  was  all  we  had  to  base  an  opin- 
ion on,  it  might  be  said  that  it  covered  too  nar- 
row a  field  and  was  based  on  mere  estimates. 
Those  limitations  are  readily  admitted. 

But  the  same  condition  existed  in  at  least  one 
other  cantonment  that  I  know  about.  The 
Director  of  the  Religious  Work  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.  has  spent  more  than  a  year  in  this 
one  camp,  and  during  that  time  he  has  had  the 
closest  possible  touch  with  the  religious  life 
of  the  men. 

In  this  cantonment  they  took  a  religious  cen- 
sus of  the  soldiers.  This  census  showed  that 
one  Protestant  Church  had  twenty-two  hundred 
and  fifty-three  men  in  camp.  The  denomina- 
tional pastor  of  this  Church  decided  that  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  to  get  all  these  men  to- 
gether for  a  great  denominational  rally.  At 
first  he  wanted  to  hold  it  in  the  Auditorium. 
Later  he  decided  that  the  Y.M.C.A.  Auditor- 
ium, which  seated  twenty-eight  hundred  men, 
might  be  too  large  and  he  determined  to  hold 
the  rally  in  the  Y.M.C.A.  building  with  the 
privilege  of  taking  the  men  into  the  Auditorium 
if  tliey  came  in  sufficient  numbers  to  warrant 
the  use  of  such  a  large  room.  The  rally  was 
advertised  in  all  the  barracks  and  a  notice  was 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     65 

given  either  at  Retreat  or  at  the  different 
messes.  His  best  efforts  only  succeeded  in 
gathering  together  a  group  of  seventeen  sol- 
diers out  of  the  twenty-two  hundred  and  fifty- 
three  men  that  claimed  connection  with  that 
Church. 

In  this  cantonment  there  was  a  very  promi- 
nent and  popular  minister  acting  as  camp  pastor 
for  another  denomination  which  had  twenty-six 
hundred  and  seventy-five  men  in  camp.  He 
was  assisted  by  an  active  worker  representing 
the  men^s  organisation  of  his  Church.  This 
camp  pastor  had  his  Sunday  morning  denomina- 
tional service  and  right  after  it  he  gave  a  free 
breakfast  to  all  the  men  who  cared  to  stay.  A 
free  breakfast  is  a  very  attractive  item  to  sol- 
diers who  get  tired  of  the  mess  hall  and  its 
surroundings,  even  if  the  food  is  always  good 
and  plentiful.  Yet  this  service,  with  all  that 
was  done  to  make  it  attractive,  only  had  an 
average  attendance  of  less  than  thirty. 

One  Sunday  a  careful  estimate  was  made  of 
the  men  that  attended  the  various  services  in 
this  camp.  It  was  found  that  one  hundred  and 
seventeen  attended  the  three  denominational 
Protestant  church  services  while  over  fiVQ 
thousand  men  attended  the  nineteen  undenomi- 
national Y.M.C.A.  services. 

These  observations  coming  from  two  widely 


66  On  to  Christ 


separated  cantonments  and  made  by  ministers 
of  different  Conunnnions  are  so  significant  that 
they  ought  to  command  serious  consideration. 

If  the  men's  interest  had  been  primarily  in 
their  Church  this  difference  could  not  have  ex- 
isted. If  their  interest  had  been  sectarian  they 
would  have  gone  to  the  church  they  believed  in. 
The  great  majority  of  those  interested  in  Chris- 
tianity showed  their  indifference  to  church  lines 
and  theological  schools  by  attending  the  unde- 
nominational ser^dces. 

The  same  indifference  to  church  forms  and 
customs  is  sho^\Ti  by  the  men's  use  of  the 
sacraments  and  prayer. 

One  man  was  baptised  by  a  Methodist  minis- 
ter using  the  Luthern  form  of  baptism  with  two 
Baptists  as  witnesses  and  the  service  was  per- 
formed in  a  Presbyterian  elder's  room — an 
absolute  irregular  proceeding,  but  no  one  of  the 
participants  doubted  its  efficiency. 

Another  time  a  Presbyterian  minister  was 
called  from  his  room  to  pray  with  a  Catholic 
man  for  his  wife  and  the  little  child  they  were 
expecting.  He  explained  that  he  believed  in 
prayer  and  so  sought  the  help  of  the  only  pray- 
ing man  that  he  could  find. 

These  incidents  multiplied  without  number. 
Every  Y.M.C.A.  worker  had  them.  The  men 
did  not  care  for  theological  hair-splitting.  They 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     67 

came  to  the  secretaries  for  spiritual  help,  and 
the  secretaries  gave  it  without  regard  to  church 
rules  or  customs.  The  result  of  this  kind  of 
spiritual  interest  on  the  part  of  the  men  showed 
its  effects  in  the  religious  life  of  the  Y.M.C.A. 
secretaries. 

These  secretaries  were  members  of  different 
Churches.  They  came  into  the  army  work  with 
their  own.  denominational  point  of  view.  Most 
of  them  quickly  realised  how  little  denomina- 
tional interest  the  soldier  had.  The  work 
was  interdenominational  because  it  was  the 
Y.M.C.A.  It  was  undenominational  because 
that  was  the  only  kind  of  religion  that  appealed 
to  the  men.  Many  a  mian  went  to  the  camp  to 
teach  the  soldiers  the  fundamentals  of  his  own 
faith.  The  influence  of  the  soldiers  reacted  on 
the  teacher  and  showed  him  that  real  Christi- 
anity is  very  different  from  church  definitions 
and  practices. 

The  Y.M.C.A.  services  appealed  to  the  men 
because  they  presented  Christ  without  a  denomi- 
national label.  The  speakers  were  almost 
always  clergymen.  Laymen  were  only  used  to 
fill  an  emergency.  These  ministers  preached  the 
Gospel,  and  they  usually  preached  it  with  power, 
but  they  left  their  church  tags  at  home.  The 
listener  could  not  tell  if  they  were  Presbyte- 
rians or  Episcopalians,  Baptists  or  Methodists. 


68  On  to  Christ 


They  were  men  of  God  with  a  message  from 
Jesus  Christ. 

This  was  what  the  men  wanted  and  this  is 
what  they  sought. 

This  truth  was  illustrated  in  many  ways  and 
this  is  a  lesson  the  Church  must  learn.  The 
men  do  not  care  if  the  Church  has  Bishops  or 
Presbyters,  or  if  it  uses  or  does  not  use  a 
prayer  book.  They  do  not  care  if  the  Church 
has  Thirty-nine  or  Forty-two  Articles,  if  it 
uses  a  Shorter  Catechism,  or  a  Heidelberg 
Confession.  They  do  not  care  if  infants  are 
baptised  or  only  adults,  and  they  have  no  inter- 
est in  the  form  of  baptism,  it  may  be  by  sprin- 
kling, pouring,  or  immersion.  The  polity  and 
theological  foundations  are  of  no  interest  to 
them.  They  no  more  want  to  study  this  machin- 
ery of  the  Church's  spiritual  life  than  they  want 
to  study  the  works  of  their  watch.  AVhat  they 
desire  is  something  that  will  tell  the  time  cor- 
rectly and  will  stand  rough  usage.  They  may 
never  open  their  watch  case.  The  face  of  the 
watch  and  the  hands  are  the  things  that  inter- 
est them.  So  it  is  with  the  Church.  They  want 
something  that  tells  the  correct  time  spiritually 
and  does  not  get  out  of  order  too  easily.  They 
take  the  machinery  for  granted.  Theologians 
have  spent  too  much  time  in  the  past  tinkering 
with  the  wheels  and  have  forgotten  that  the 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     69 

function  of  the  Church  was  to  tell  the  time 
correctly. 

The  Church  must  have  its  machinery  to  be  a 
Church,  but  it  must  be  kept  in  the  background 
where  it  belongs.  There  has  been  plenty  of 
talk  about  Church  Federation  and  Church 
Unity.  The  one  practical  Federation  of  the 
Church  has  been  the  spiritual  power  in  the 
Army  and  Navy.  This  was  the  strength  and 
stronghold  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  The  men  have 
seen  it  work  there,  and  they  will  want  it  at 
home.  Narrow  sectarianism  will  repel  and 
alienate  them. 

It  is  fully  recognised  that  there  are  great  sec- 
tions of  our  country  where  the  denominational 
appeal  is  still  strong.  The  Churches  use  the  old 
shibboleths  to  rally  their  people.  The  denom- 
inations hold  to  hard-and-fast  lines  and  there 
is  little  or  no  fellowship  between  them.  The 
people  of  such  sections  should  realise  the  fol- 
lowing facts : 

Firstly,  Church  federation  and  fellowship  is 
a  reasonable  thing  to  expect.  Even  Christ,  when 
John  came  and  told  Him  of  the  man  who  was 
casting  out  devils  but  did  not  follow  with  the 
disciples,  said  to  him,' 'He  that  is  not  against 
us  is  on  our  part. ' '  The  Master  was  more  liberal 
than  His  beloved  disciple,  and  John  was  more 
liberal  than  some  of  the  generations  that  have 


70  On  to   Christ 


followed  him.  The  careful  student  of  the  New 
Testament  realises  that  Peter,  James,  and  Paul 
had  different  points  of  view  and  different  lines 
of  approach  in  dealing  w^ith  the  great  spiritual 
questions  concerning  Christ.  His  Work  and 
His  Church.  These  differences  were  merely 
differences  of  opinion  and  did  not  prevent  the 
apostles  recognising  the  true  worth  of  those 
who  approached  the  Master  in  a  different  way 
than  they  did.  The  differences  of  our  present 
denominations  are  an  outgrowth  of  these  differ- 
ent points  of  view  that  even  existed  amongst  the 
apostles.  There  has  been  an  accumulation  of 
the  things  on  which  they  differed  through  the 
passing  centuries.  In  some  cases  these  differ- 
ences have  been  built  into  a  veritable  wall 
around  a  Church,  separating  it  from  fellowship 
with  all  other  denominations  and  making  for  it 
a  hard  shell  in  which  it  lives  alone.  If  we  only 
realised  that  the  nearer  the  Church  gets  to 
Christ  the  nearer  she  gets  to  all  other  Churches, 
then  they  would  all  come  together.  This  means 
that  we  would  remove  the  things  that  have 
accumulated  by  the  passing  of  time  and  come 
back  to  the  spiritual  faith  that  was  revealed  by 
our  Saviour. 

Secondly,  this  Church  federation  and  fellow- 
ship is  practicable.  The  denominations  are 
already  working  on  these  lines  in  the  Foreign 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     71 

Mission  field  where  the  Churches  have  been 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  great  problems  of 
paganism.  They  have  realised  that  their  differ- 
ences are  only  differences  of  opinion.  They  are 
all  seeking  to  be  loyal  to  the  Master  and  they 
are  trying  to  make  plain  His  truth  to  those  who 
know  Him  not.  The  size  of  their  problem  draws 
them  closer  together  and  they  are  dividing  the 
territory,  arranging  for  Union  Denominational 
institutions,  and  cooperating  in  many  vital 
ways.  Cannot  the  Church  at  home  show  the 
same  spirit  of  breadth  and  consecration  that  the 
Mission  Church  is  showing  1  Cannot  the 
Church  that  lives  on  the  theology  realise  that 
she  existed  before  her  theology  was  written? 

The  real  difference  between  the  Churches  is 
not  theological  but  psychological.  This  is  the 
opinion  of  many  trained  minds  as  the  following 
illustration  shows. 

Some  years  ago  Professor  Giddings  had  the 
same  group  of  students  for  two  years  in  his 
sociological  seminar  at  Columbia  University. 
They  were  all  graduates  of  recognised  colleges, 
and  in  their  second  year  they  had  received  a 
good  deal  of  training  in  analysing  different 
sociological  groups.  One  day  Professor  Gid- 
dings handed  out  sheets  of  paper  and  told  the 
class  to  indicate,  by  the  use  of  symbols  they 
were  familiar  with,  the  type  of  mind  they  con- 


72  On  to   Christ 


sidered  to  predominate  in  the  Churches  he  men- 
tioned. There  was  no  time  for  consultation  or 
discussion.  The  s^nnbols  were  familiar  to  all, 
as  they  had  been  used  in  a  number  of  previous 
studies.  They  signified  the  different  types  of 
character,  and  ran  from  predominatingly  intel- 
lectual, through  partially  intellectual  and  some- 
what emotional,  to  the  entirely  emotional 
nature.  He  then  rapidly  mentioned  one  after 
the  other  all  the  different  Churches  and  reli- 
gious sects  that  are  familiar  to  educated  men 
in  the  United  States.  The  interesting  thing  was 
the  result  of  this  test.  Allo'wing  for  a  slight 
variation  due  to  the  personal  equation  the  con- 
clusions were  the  same.  Every  one  of  the  stu- 
dents in  this  class  recognised  that  the  different 
Churches  and  religious  sects  in  this  country 
contained  a  definite  psychological  group. 

This  study  simply  showed  that  these  trained 
men  all  thought  that  the  different  Churches 
appealed  to  specific  typos  of  mind.  An  experi- 
ence of  nearly  twenty  years  in  the  pastorate  has 
convinced  me  that  the  result  of  this  sociological 
experiment  was  correct.  Sometimes  the  psycho- 
logical element  is  obscure,  as  there  is  a  mi- 
nority of  the  different  types  of  character  in 
every  Church.  But  the  main  fact  stands  out 
clearly,  people  as  well  as  birds  of  a  feather 
flock  tosrether. 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     73 

The  time  has  come  for  the  Churches  to  recog- 
nise that  their  fundamental  difference  is  psycho- 
logical and  not  theological. 

In  many  places  a  man  ignores  the  theology 
of  a  Church  before  he  joins  it.  He  realises  that 
all  Churches  preach  Christ  and  show  the  way  to 
God.  They  all  gather  under  the  symbol  of  the 
Cross  and  exalt  the  duty  of  caring  for  the  weak 
and  afflicted.  They  have  different  forms  and 
customs,  but  their  object  is  just  the  same.  Peo- 
ple today  unite  with  the  Church  that  appeals  to 
them.  There  is  a  type  of  mind  that  finds  its 
highest  expression  in  a  liturgical  service.  It 
would  naturally  affiliate  itself  with  the  Episco- 
palian Church.  There  are  intellectual  people 
who  want  dignity  or  worship  with  instruction 
and  inspiration  from  the  pulpit,  they  become 
Congregationalists  or  Presbyterians.  There  are 
warm-hearted  people  who  can  find  no  help  in 
liturgies  and  complain  of  the  coldness  of  an 
intellectual  service,  they  become  Methodists. 

These  Churches  show  most  clearly  what  is 
meant  by  the  psychological  appeal  of  the  differ- 
ent denominations.  The  same  thing  is  true  of 
the  other  Churches.  In  some  cases  it  is  not  so 
evident,  but  careful  study  will  convince  most 
students  that  each  Church  makes  its  appeal  to  a 
man's  temperament  rather  than  to  his  theology. 
If  the  Church  had  to  depend  on  the  theological 


74  On  to  Christ 


interests  of  the  average  American  citizen  it 
would  trust  to  a  broken  reed,  as  they  have  not 
enough  theology  in  nine  out  of  ten  cases  to  be 
defined. 

If  the  Churches  could  only  recognise  this  fact 
it  would  be  a  long  step  towards  a  sympathetic 
relationship  and  a  unity  of  appeal  that  the  men 
of  the  nation  long  for. 

There  is  no  use  in  trying  to  convince  the  world 
that  any  one  Church  has  a  corner  on  the  truth 
of  the  Bible.  Every  Church  possesses  scholars 
of  ability  and  apologists  of  power.  They  can 
defend  their  own  point  of  view  with  arguments 
without  end  and  many  apt  quotations  from  the 
Scriptures.  Admit  that  all  have  the  right 
foundation  and  are  doing  God's  work  on  earth 
according  to  their  own  temperament,  and  the 
need  of  argument  ceases.  Men  who  have  be- 
come accustomed  to  an  undenominational  form 
of  Christianity  like  it.  They  are  going  to  de- 
mand the  same  kind  of  Christianity  in  the  New 
Era.  What  will  the  Churches  do  about  it?  If 
they  do  nothing  they  will  lose  the  sympathy  of 
the  men  of  the  nation.  It  can  be  done,  and 
these  men  know  it.  There  is  a  danger  that  men 
will  begin  to  doubt  the  sincerity  of  the  Church's 
desire  for  federation  and  if  they  lose  faith  in 
the  Church's  sincerity  in  such  an  important 
matter  they  will  refuse  t(5  accept  her  as  their 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     75 

spiritual  guide  in  other  things.  The  Church 
will  lose  her  grip  on  men  just  when  it  is  most 
needed. 

The  weakness  of  all  efforts  to  establish  a  true 
Federation  of  the  Protestant  Churches  has 
been  found  in  the  ecclesiastical  interests  of  the 
different  denominations.  The  machinery  of 
every  Church  is  in  the  hands  of  strong  men 
who  have  great  loyalty  to  their  own  organisa- 
tion and  sometimes  mistake  the  success  of  their 
Church  for  the  coming  of  Christ's  Kingdom. 
Anything  that  limits  their  activities  or  reduces 
the  number  of  their  own  churches  seems  harm- 
ful. They  are  always  ready  to  talk  federation. 
Most  of  them  believe  in  it.  They  are  only 
troubled  by  having  no  practical  plan  for  work- 
ing it  out  and  at  the  same  time  conserving  their 
own  ecclesiastical  organisation.  They  are  all 
so  busy  with  their  own  duties  that  none  of 
them  have  time  to  work  out  the  necessary  de- 
tails. The  time  has  come  when  these  details 
must  be  worked  out  and  something  done,  or  the 
cause  of  Christ  in  this  country  will  suffer  ir- 
reparable harm.  The  men  of  our  country  are  in 
an  earnest,  receptive  mood.  They  would  co- 
operate in  this  work  with  great  heartiness. 
They  will  not  respond  to  exhortations  to  help 
support  a  Presbyterian,  Methodist,  Baptist, 
and  Episcopalian  church  in  a  small  town  which 


76  On  to   Christ 


has  a  population  only  large  enough  to  make  one 
fair-sized  congregation.  They  will  want  one 
and  only  one  Church. 

Two  concrete  illustrations  will  show  how  the 
ecclesiastical  organisation  sometimes  causes  a 
multiplicity  of  churches  in  a  small  community. 

In  one  small  town  there  are  two  churches 
about  a  block  apart.  One  is  a  Methodist  church 
and  one  a  Presbyterian.  Eecently  the  Presby- 
terian Church  called  a  graduate  of  a  Methodist 
seminary  as  pastor.  The  Presbytery  installed 
this  man  trained  by  the  Methodist  Church  and 
at  his  request  invited  a  professor  of  the  Metho- 
dist seminary  to  give  him  the  charge.  Now 
there  are  two  churches,  one  bearing  the 
Methodist  and  the  other  the  Presbyterian  label, 
both  presided  over  by  ministers  educated  in  the 
same  seminary  and  both  trying  to  appeal  to  the 
same  people.  If  these  two  churches  combined 
they  could  dominate  that  whole  community. 
They  have  enough  people  and  wealth  to  make 
one  strong  organisation.  Instead  of  that  they 
are  keeping  up  the  denominational  appeal,  and 
that  is  the  one  thing  that  the  men  of  our  coun- 
try as  represented  in  the  Army  do  not  want. 

Nothing  was  done  by  either  the  Methodist 
Conference  or  the  Presbytery  to  bring  these 
churches  together.    Individuals  in  both  denomi- 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     77 

nations  realised  the  absurdity  of  the  situation, 
but  there  was  no  ecclesiastical  machinery  that 
met  this  need.  Has  not  the  time  come  to  con- 
sider the  creation  of  some  inter-Church  com- 
mission or  board  that  can  act  in  such  a  case? 
There  are  strong  men  in  all  denominations  that 
realise  the  absurdity  of  multiplying  churches 
in  sparsely  settled  communities.  Is  there  no 
way  that  these  men  can  get  together  and  de- 
velop a  spirit  of  broad  ecclesiastical  statesman- 
ship instead  of  the  old  spirit  of  denominational 
rivalry? 

The  following  incident  shows  even  more 
clearly  the  guilt  of  ecclesiastical  organisations 
in  mutiplying  churches : 

There  were  two  weak,  struggling  churches  in 
a  village  community.  A  young  man  of  broad 
sympathy  and  spiritual  vision  became  pastor  of 
one  of  these  churches.  The  other  was  without 
a  pastor.  Being  the  only  minister  in  the  vil- 
lage, he  arranged  to  supply  both  pulpits  by 
preaching  on  alternate  Sundays  in  the  different 
churches.  He  was  active  and  zealous.  He  built 
up  a  real  civic  and  community  interest.  In  time 
the  churches  came  to  the  point  where  most  of 
the  people  wanted  one  church.  They  had  gone 
so  far  as  to  show  which  denomination  they 
favoured.    Immediately  the  denomination  that 


78  On  to  Christ 


would  lose  a  church  stepped  in  and  by  its 
ecclesiastical  authority  prevented  the  union. 
They  did  not  want  their  ecclesiastical  records 
to  show  the  loss  of  a  church.  This  shows  that 
in  this  case  the  fault  lay  with  an  ecclesiastical 
organisation. 

The  name  of  this  denomination  has  been  in- 
tentionally omitted.  It  is  not  the  only  sinner 
and  it  should  not  be  specified.  All  that  is  in- 
tended here  is  to  show  by  concrete  illustrations 
where  the  root  of  this  fault  lies.  No  one  de- 
sires to  hurt  any  particular  denomination. 
They  have  all  done  good  work  in  the  past. 
They  are  now  an  outgrown  relic  of  a  former 
age.  They  should  recognise  that  they  are  not 
an  end  in  themselves  but  a  means  to  an  end — 
the  development  of  Christian  character  in  in- 
dividuals and  the  building  up  of  Christ's  King- 
dom in  the  community.  Anything,  even  to  the 
loss  of  their  own  identity,  that  can  accomplish 
these  purposes  should  be  done  without  question. 

This  problem  of  Church  federation  also  de- 
mands an  increased  spirit  of  consecration  on 
the  part  of  church  members.  It  would  be  neces- 
sary to  give  up  some  buildings  hallowed  by 
many  sacred  associations.  It  would  require,  in 
some  cases,  the  use  of  new  forms  of  worship. 
The  end  in  view  is  worthy  of  these  sacrifices. 


Weakness  of  Denominational  Appeal     79 

It  is  possible  at  different  services  to  appeal  to 
people  of  different  temperaments.  It  is  pos- 
sible to  have  a  dignified,  liturgical,  or  intellec- 
tual service  on  Sunday  morning  and  a  warm- 
hearted, simple  service  at  night.  If  we  only 
recognise  that  the  difference  between  the 
Churches  is  psychological  and  not  theological, 
a  plan  could  be  worked  out  that  would  appeal 
to  a  big  majority  of  the  people.  We  cannot 
hope  to  eliminate  all  differences  of  opinion  this 
side  of  eternity.  Single  Churches  that  appeal 
to  people  of  different  temperament  can  be 
developed. 

The  New  Era  is  upon  us,  and  as  we  face  its 
opportunity  we  have  to  realise  that  the  old  shib- 
boleths and  denominational  appeals  do  not  hold 
our  men.  This  is  a  real  problem.  The  Church 
can  reach  and  hold  far  more  men  by  eliminating 
denominational  rivalries  than  in  any  other  way. 
This  allows  the  Church  to  make  one  appeal  to 
all  men.  It  makes  the  local  church  strong 
enough  to  dominate  its  field  and  carry  on  a 
social  and  community  work  that  will  hold  these 
men.  The  practical  difficulties  are  many  but  the 
importance  of  the  object  sought  justifies  drastic 
measures.  All  denominations  should  be  co- 
operating in  this  work,  and  they  ought  to  do 
it  now. 


8o  On  to  Christ 


The  Golden  Moment  of  the  age  has  come. 
Let  the  Church  lay  aside  every  weight  of 
prejudice  and  the  sin  of  selfishness  and  run 
with  patience  this  race  that  is  before  her,  and 
great  shall  be  the  glory  that  is  given  to  the 
founder  of  the  Church  and  Saviour  of  Mankind. 


IV 

THE   NEED  OF   A  PEACTICAL  CHKISTIANITY 

A  STUDY  of  the  religious  work  of  the 
Y.M.C.A.  in  our  national  cantonments 
showed  that  its  strength  was  in  the  prac- 
tical common  sense  form  of  Christianity  that  it 
preached  and  practised.  It  did  not  limit  itself 
to  preaching.  It  really  lived  for  others.  It 
showed  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  daily  acts  of 
kindly  service.  The  secretaries  were  always 
obliging  and  considerate.  They  were  always  on 
their  job.  They  realised  that  a  man  needed  to 
laugh  just  as  much  as  he  needed  to  pray.  They 
furnished  amusement  and  recreation  as  well  as 
religion  and  good  advice.  They  gave  out  box- 
ing gloves  and  footballs  as  well  as  Bibles  and 
testaments.  They  remembered  that  a  man  had 
a  virile  body  and  active  mind  as  well  as  a  needy 
soul. 

In  one  of  the  cantonments  the  Director  of  the 
Social  Work  had  been  an  evangelist  before  he 
took  up  the  army  work.  It  was  his  duty  to 
provide  wholesome  entertainments  for  the  sol- 
diers.   He  discovered  that  Sunday  night  was  an 

81 


82  On  to  Christ 


off  time  for  the  men  in  camp.  Those  who 
wanted  to  go  to  a  religious  service  went  to 
the  Y.M.C.A.  meetings.  Hundreds  would  not 
go  near  any  kind  of  a  service.  They  loafed 
around  the  barracks  or  wandered  around  camp 
looking  for  something  to  do.  This  secretary 
decided  that  something  ought  to  be  done  for 
these  men,  and  so  he  started  what  he  called  a 
Popular  Sunday  Evening  in  the  Auditorium. 
This  name  was  suggestive  of  many  things,  but 
as  it  really  meant  nothing  it  gave  a  good  deal 
of  latitude  as  to  the  programme.  It  was  not  a 
religious  service,  although  when  he  could  get 
the  right  speaker  a  brief  interesting  talk  was 
given  and  sometimes  a  prayer  was  offered. 
Sometimes  it  was  an  evening  of  good  music,  at 
other  times  he  used  a  good  educational  motion 
picture.  The  programme  depended  on  what  was 
the  most  appropriate  thing  that  he  could  get 
tliat  night.  Once  when  he  was  disappointed  in 
his  programme  he  ran  in  a  Mutt  and  Jeff 
picture. 

One  of  his  evangelistic  friends  heard  what  he 
was  doing,  and  took  him  to  task  for  it.  **  My 
good  brother, '^  answered  the  secretary,  *'  don't 
find  fault  with  me  until  you  have  lived  in  camp 
at  least  a  month  and  have  studied  the  needs  of 
these  men.'' 

He  had  discovered  that  old  methods  of  work 


The  Need  of  a  Practical  Christianity       83 

were  inadequate  for  the  task  before  him  and 
that  his  old  prejudices  had  to  be  sacrificed. 
His  interest  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of 
the  soldiers  made  him  enlarge  his  own  ideas 
as  to  what  was  fitting  for  Sundaj^  evening. 

The  experience  of  this  secretary  was  not 
exceptional.  It  merely  illustrates  what  hap- 
pened to  most  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  army  secre- 
taries. They  found  out  that  simple  preaching 
was  not  enough.  Christianity  to  be  effective  in 
camp  had  to  give  more  consideration  to  man's 
desire  for  social  life  and  amusement  than  it  ever 
gave  in  the  ordinary  parish.  Even  Sunday 
evening  had  to  be  used  constructively  to  meet 
this  need. 

The  evangelist  did  not  give  up  his  convictions 
on  his  old  work.  The  changed  conditions  simply 
made  him  use  other  means  to  reach  men  and 
help  them.  If  he  could  not  get  the  men  into  a 
preaching  service  he  realised  it  was  better  to 
get  them  into  a  good  atmosphere  and  make  them 
think  of  wholesome  things  than  to  leave  them  to 
the  demoralising  pastimes  that  many  practised. 
Good  music,  educational  pictures,  and  even  Mutt 
and  Jeff  were  better  than  poker  and  craps. 

Here  is  where  the  Church  has  sometimes 
failed.  While  the  Y.M.C.A.  tried  to  care  for 
the  whole  life  of  the  soldier  the  Church  has 
expected  the  home,  club,  or  lodge  to  furnish 


84  On  to  Christ 


the  social  life  and  recreation  men  craved  while 
it  took  care  of  all  spiritual  matters.  Many  men 
have  been  so  entirely  absorbed  in  their  social 
and  physical  needs  that  they  have  ignored  their 
souls.  If  the  Church  had  had  a  common  meet- 
ing-ground with  these  men  it  would  have  been 
in  touch  with  them  when  they  needed  spiritual 
help.  It  could  have  spoken  the  right  word  in 
season.  The  men  have  learnt  to  think  of  a 
Christianity  that  is  sympathetic  and  kindly, 
free  from  dictatorial  ad\^ce  but  always  on  the 
job.  The  kind  of  Christianity  that  hands  out 
writing  paper  with  a  smile,  answers  foolish 
questions  with  patience,  and  is  always  willing 
to  run  an  errand  for  a  friend.  This  work  re- 
quires more  personality  and  equipment  but 
fewer  churches.  It  is  the  kind  of  Christianity 
that  is  needed  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  New 
Era. 

It  requires  comfortable  rooms  furnished  with 
magazines  and  games.  It  means  having  a  player 
piano  or  a  victrola  with  a  good  assortment  of 
popular  records.  The  records  must  be  kept  up 
to  date  and  must  constantly  pass  from  Mr.  Zip 
to  Katie  and  never  pine  for  Wagner  and  Bach. 
The  men  ought  to  feel  at  home,  and  that  means 
smoking  should  be  permitted,  for  the  man  that 
smokes  does  not  feel  at  home  unless  he  can  have 
his  pipe  or  his  cigarette. 


The  Need  of  a  Practical  Christianity       85 

This  kind  of  work  will  not  run  itself.  You  can- 
not run  it  by  rule  of  thumb  or  by  any  other 
superimposed  rules.  It  needs  the  constant  per- 
sonal attention  of  a  man  who  lives  with  it.  His 
main  job  is  to  be  a  friend  to  all  the  men  in 
town.  ^  His  object  is  the  creating  of  friendships 
that  give  a  foundation  for  words  of  advice  and 
spiritual  counsel  when  the  occasion  arises. 

There  cannot  be  three  or  four  social  centres 
in  one  small  town.  The  necessary  equipment 
costs  money.  Personality  must  be  given  to  it 
by  adequate  oversight.  Two  ministers  preach- 
ing different  conceptions  of  the  Gospel  each 
Sunday,  only  hinder  each  other.  One  Church 
and  one  minister  with  a  consecrated  assistant 
and  an  adequately  equipped  building  would 
make  an  ideal  organisation  for  meeting  the 
religious  problems  of  the  New  Era.  This  kind 
of  an  organisation  can  be  developed  in  every 
village  community,  if  the  followers  of  Christ 
will  only  g^i  near  enough  to  Him  to  forget  their 
denominational  prejudices  and  strive  to  conduct 
His  Church  so  as  to  help  the  most  people 
possible. 

The  Church  cannot  afford  to  eliminate  from 
the  field  of  her  activities  the  economic  life  of 
men,  as  the  greater  part  of  a  man's  time  is  spent 
in  earning  his  living.  The  conditions  under 
which  he  labours  and  the  amount  he  earns  affect 


86  On  to  Christ 


his  mind  and  soul.  True  religion  cannot  ignore 
these  questions.  This  brings  the  Church  face 
to  face  with  the  conflict  between  labour  and 
capital. 

Almost  every  congregation  has  in  it  repre- 
sentatives of  both  these  classes.  They  worship 
together  on  Sunday  and  go  their  separate  ways 
on  Monday.  They  are  constantly  quarrelling, 
and  the  Church  looks  the  other  way  while  they 
fight  it  out.  The  unions  are  so  absorbed  in  their 
own  struggle  that  their  leaders  sometimes  lose 
all  sense  of  patriotism  and  duty.  During  the 
war  a  company  engaged  in  essential  war  work 
was  informed  by  the  National  Government  that 
they  were  not  turning  out  their  product  fast 
enough  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  Army  in 
France,  and  the  Government  requested  permis- 
sion to  send  a  couple  of  representatives  to  ex- 
plain the  situation  to  the  men.  The  company 
accepted  the  Government's  offer  and  told  its 
employees  that  they  could  attend  this  meet- 
ing during  their  work  hours  and  the  com- 
pany would  pay  them  for  their  time.  The 
representatives  of  the  Government  came 
and  gave  a  plain  statement  of  what  the 
Army  needed  and  urged  the  men  to  do 
their  best  to  speed  up  production.  The  men 
were  red-blooded  American  citizens  and  they 
responded  nobly.    A  few  days  later  at  a  meet- 


The  Need  of  a  Practical  Christianity       87 

ing  of  the  union  held  behind  closed  doors,  one 
of  the  union's  officials  warned  the  men  against 
the  Government's  effort  to  speed  up  production 
and  told  them  that  if  they  did  it  they  would  be 
traitors  to  the  union.  This  kind  of  talk,  which 
was  used  while  we  had  two  million  men  in 
France  and  a  constantly  growing  casualty  list 
which  showed  that  thousands  of  men  had  suf- 
fered or  died  for  their  country,  was  not  only 
treason  against  the  Government  but  it  was  a 
cowardly  attack  on  the  men  who  were  fighting 
our  battle.  It  may  be  said,  in  exoneration  of 
this  official  of  the  union,  that  capital  in  the 
past  had  not  treated  its  employees  fairly  and 
had  used  their  loyalty  and  patriotism  for  its 
own  ends.  Such  exoneration  does  not  exoner- 
ate. This  leader  was  blinded  by  his  own 
prejudice  and  carried  away  by  his  own  concep- 
tion of  what  the  members  of  the  union  should 
do.  He  never  realised  the  injury  that  he  was 
doing  to  our  men  in  France  or  to  the  cause  of 
labour.  Fortunately  he  only  represents  one 
class  of  labour  leaders,  as  there  are  many  whose 
loyalty  is  above  all  doubt ;  but  this  incident  illus- 
trates how  deep  the  chasm  has  become  between 
capital  and  labour.  It  shows  the  need  of  some 
drastic  action.  Both  parties  believe  in  prop- 
erty rights  and  both  parties  believe  in  industry. 
Here  is  a  field  for  church  work.    During  recent 


88  On  to   Christ 


years  some  clear-headed  men  like  Charles 
Stetzle  have  seen  this  problem  and  have  urged 
the  Church  to  take  it  up.  Some  denominations 
are  playing  with  it.  No  Church  that  I  know  of 
is  working  at  it.  The  Churches  have  their 
societies  to  advocate  temperance  and  to  safe- 
guard the  Sabbath.  They  are  active  and  doing 
a  splendid  work.  The  Church  needs  another 
society  with  the  courage  of  Christ  to  face  this 
problem  and  bring  together  these  diverse  inter- 
ests, both  of  which  are  represented  in  the 
Church. 

The  foundation  of  this  antagonism  is  found 
in  past  abuses  and  grievances.  The  bitterness 
of  the  present  is  due  to  mutual  misunderstand- 
ings and  a  general  lack  of  confidence.  If  the 
Church  is  a  fearless  friend  of  both  sides  and 
simply  seeks  justice  for  all,  in  time  she  may  be 
able  to  do  much  towards  bringing  them  to- 
gether. There  must  be  some  just  way  of 
protecting  the  interests  of  both  the  employer 
and  employee.  This  modus  vivendi  should  be 
earnestly  sought  for,  and  when  found  it  ought 
to  be  advocated  by  the  Church.  This  is  bringing 
our  religion  into  the  daily  life  of  business  in  a 
practical  way,  and  it  is  the  kind  of  question  we 
must  expect  to  deal  with  in  the  days  of  the 
New  Era. 

Our  problems  in  the  past  have  been  those 


The  Need  of  a  Practical  Christianity       89 

problems  that  grew  out  of  an  effort  to  develop 
personal  morality.  The  problems  of  the  Church 
in  the  future  will  be  the  problems  that  grow  out 
of  an  effort  to  develop  in  men  and  society  a 
social  conscience.  We  are  our  brother's  keeper, 
and  God  will  accept  no  excuse  for  the  neglect  or 
evasion  of  this  moral  obligation  to  the  weak  or 
poor.  Christianity  is  not  merely  a  Sabbath 
Day's  devotions,  it  is  also  a  system  of  personal 
and  social  ethics  that  should  control  the  activi- 
ties and  business  of  every  other  day  in  the 
week. 

This  effort  to  make  our  religion  a  real  power 
in  our  daily  life  leads  us  into  other  difficult 
questions.  Christianity  is  a  philosophy  of 
social  life  as  well  as  a  gospel  of  personal  salva- 
tion. The  whole  foundation  of  modern  civilisa- 
tion has  been  challenged  by  the  rise  of 
Bolshevism. 

This  party  has  shown  its  destructive  power  in 
Russia,  and  there  is  a  possibility  that  it  may 
spread  through  the  countries  of  Europe  and 
even  cross  the  Atlantic.  Bolshevism  is  a  prac- 
tical application  of  the  doctrine  of  sabotage.  Its 
exponents  believe  that  organised  civilisation  is 
so  hopelessly  bad  that  the  only  thing  to  do  is 
to  destroy  it.  It  is  weak  in  its  constructive 
policy,  but  strong  in  its  spirit  of  destruction. 
It  is  a  demand  that  the  least  educated  class  shall 


90  On  to  Christ 


control  all  the  power  of  the  Government  and 
remake  society  on  its  own  lines.  Its  strength 
lies  in  the  number  of  people  that  have  suffered 
from  the  present  organisation  of  society  and  the 
bitterness  of  their  grievances.  Where  there  is 
a  well-organised  and  just  social  life  it  is 
weak.  Where  the  poor  have  been  trodden  under 
foot  by  a  heedless  and  selfish  autocracy  it 
is  strong.  The  Church  should  realise  that  it 
is  her  duty  to  guard  society  against  the  excesses 
of  this  destructive  spirit.  It  is  not  enough  to 
preach  against  it.  Wlien  the  Church  opens  her 
doors  to  the  social  life  of  men  she  must  go 
farther,  she  must  oppose  all  forms  of  social 
injustice.  Her  belief  in  order  should  not  blind 
her  eyes  to  those  dark  corners  of  modern  eco- 
nomic life  where  the  ignorant  are  exploited  and 
children  are  crushed.  Such  things  do  exist,  and 
the  Church  should  fearlessly  search  them  out 
and  hold  them  up  to  public  scorn. 

There  is  a  love  of  fair  play  and  justice  in 
this  country  that  will  not  permit  them  to  con- 
tinue after  they  have  been  exposed.  The  Church 
is  not  afraid  of  this  task.  She  is  only  ignorant. 
She  has  been  too  much  out  of  touch  with  the 
conditions  under  which  many  people  have  to 
work  and  the  way  in  which  some  wealth  has  been 
created.  This  task  requires  accurate  knowl- 
edge, sound  common  sense,  and  great  courage. 


The  Need  of  a  Practical  Christianity       91 

The  best  solution  for  these  problems  is  a  real 
application  of  Christ's  principles  to  our  social 
and  economic  life. 

The  need  of  this  practical  application  of 
Christianity  to  the  daily  life  of  mankind  is 
shown  in  yet  another  way. 

The  League  of  Nations  to  guarantee  peace 
will  be  ineffective  unless  there  is  a  strong  moral 
conscience  to  support  it  in  the  nations  that 
compose  the  League.  Its  strength  or  weakness 
depends  upon  the  moral  character  of  the  indi- 
vidual citizens  of  these  nations.  This  League 
depends  for  its  very  existence  on  the  sacredness 
of  treaty  obligations.  These  obligations  are 
sometimes  antagonistic  to  national  aspirations. 
A  nation  must  have  the  moral  character  that  is 
necessary  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  its  own  ambi- 
tions for  its  own  and  the  world's  larger  good. 

Eecently  the  world  was  startled  by  the  almost 
unbelievable  international  immorality  of  Ger- 
many. Her  own  immediate  interests  seemed  to 
be  jeopardised  by  the  treaty  that  safeguarded 
the  neutrality  of  Belgium.  She  immediately 
called  the  treaty  a  ** scrap  of  paper"  and  rav- 
aged Belgium  from  one  end  to  the  other.  This 
was  the  result  of  forty  years  of  the  wrong  kind 
of  education.  She  had  been  training  her  people 
in  the  spirit  of  Pan-Germanism,  which  taught 
that  the  nation  was  the  final  arbiter  of  morals 


92  On  to  Christ 


and  could  do  no  wrong.  The  people  who 
accepted  this  conception  of  national  life  broke 
all  international  laws  and  gloried  in  their  deeds 
of  shame. 

Christianity  believes  in  another  sort  of  edu- 
cation. She  believes  that  all  peoples  need  to  be 
taught  the  eternal  principles  of  righteousness 
and  justice.  These  principles  do  not  come  from 
the  lips  of  kings  or  the  decrees  of  parliaments. 
They  are  moral  qualities  written  into  the  law 
of  the  universe  by  its  Creator.  They  cannot 
be  altered  or  modified  by  any  human  agency. 
They  are  obligatory  laws  that  should  govern 
the  acts  of  nations  as  well  as  individuals.  This 
education  is  the  only  adequate  foundation  for 
a  League  of  Nations  to  enforce  peace. 

Differences  in  national  interests  are  bound  to 
arise  among  the  nations  that  compose  the 
League  and  they  will  need  the  spirit  of  self- 
restraint  that  comes  from  a  sense  of  moral 
obligations  and  a  realisation  of  the  need  of 
weighing  all  acts  in  the  scales  of  righteousness 
and  justice.  It  is  no  longer  possible  for  a  na- 
tion to  isolate  itself  from  the  rest  of  the  world. 
The  great  Atlantic  is  leaped  by  the  wireless, 
and  the  interests  of  Europe  knock  at  our  doors 
through  their  representatives  in  the  West 
Indies.  France,  Holland,  and  England  stand 
at  the  main  entrance  of  our  commercial  life  in 


The  Need  of  a  Practical  Christianity       93 

their  colonies  that  touch  the  main  routes  lead- 
ing to  the  Panama  Canal.  We  cannot  build  a 
Chinese  Wall  to  separate  ourselves  from  the 
interests  of  Europe  or  the  welfare  of  South 
America.  The  nations  of  the  world  are  a  great 
family  with  diversified  interests  and  different 
ambitions.  The  only  thing  that  can  bring  unity 
and  harmony  to  all  these  nations  is  a  belief  that 
righteousness  is  always  righteous  and  justice 
should  be  the  final  arbiter  of  all  international 
questions. 

The  Church  is  the  builder  of  morals  and  con- 
science. This  is  her  unique  job.  She  aims  to 
build  up  the  moral  character  of  our  own  people 
at  home,  and  she  should  strive  to  develop  the 
conscience  of  all  nations  on  earth.  This  is  the 
call  of  the  New  Era  for  an  intensified  work  in 
our  own  land  and  an  extension  of  the  Church's 
influence  in  its  work  for  foreign  missions. 
Through  this  mission  work  of  the  Church  it 
has  established  schools  and  colleges,  hospitals 
and  medical  schools  throughout  the  whole 
earth.  It  has  overthrown  ignorance  and  blind 
prejudices  wherever  it  has  gone.  It  has  the 
confidence  of  rulers  and  people  in  many  distant 
places.  By  extending  and  strengthening  this 
work  we  can  develop  the  consciences  of  these 
people  and  strengthen  the  foundations  of  the 
LeagTie  of  Nations. 


94  On  to  Christ 


We  do  not  want  to  exploit  them  for  our  own 
advantage.  We  seek  the  peace  of  righteous- 
ness and  justice,  but  righteousness  and  justice 
can  exist  only  where  there  is  a  developed  con- 
science and  a  high  conception  of  moral  obliga- 
tions. This  is  a  practical  work  of  applying  the 
principles  of  Christ  to  both  national  and  inter- 
national life  and  interests. 

This  conception  of  the  Church's  sphere  of 
influence  affects  the  kind  of  preaching  that  is 
expected.  It  requires  the  ministry  to  preach 
Christ  and  show  men  how  to  live.  The  men  of 
America  have  just  passed  through  a  unique 
experience.  Their  interests  have  been  broad- 
ened and  their  minds  have  been  sharpened. 
Many  have  been  touched  by  the  activities  and 
message  of  a  practical  Christianity.  They  will 
look  for  the  same  sort  of  thing  in  the  Church 
of  the  New  Era.  Sermons  on  future  punish- 
ment will  pass  by  unheeded.  They  have  seen 
too  many  men  die  to  be  afraid  of  death. 

The  selfishness  of  the  appeal  *'Save  Your- 
self^' will  repel  them.  They  have  gone  to 
another  school.  They  have  been  taught  to  sacri- 
fice themselves  at  the  word  of  command,  with- 
out a  moment's  hesitation.  They  have  learned 
to  give  themselves  to  save  a  friend.  They  seek 
a  religion  that  is  virile  and  brave.  The  Gospel 
contains  this  faith.     Christ  preached  it.     He 


The  Need  of  a  Practical  Christianity       95 

called  His  disciples  to  a  life  of  hardship  and 
sacrifice,  and  they  gloried  in  His  call.  If  we 
offer  them  spiritual  sugar  plums  they  will 
refuse  them  with  disdain.  They  are  interested 
in  life  and  all  its  problems.  They  have  received 
a  liberal  education  with  their  military  training. 
They  look  to  the  Church  for  guidance  and  help 
in  solving  the  problems  of  Christian  citizenship. 

The  practical  work  we  have  just  been  consid- 
ering gives  the  minister  the  necessary  inspira- 
tion for  this  type  of  preaching.  These  things 
usually  go  together.  The  daily  touch  with  the 
social  and  business  life  of  men  makes  the  min- 
ister grasp  their  viewpoint.  His  Bible  study 
gives  him  the  inspiration  and  help  they  need. 
The  old  Gospel  comes  with  new  emphasis  and 
men  come  to  church  because  they  find  there  the 
inspiration  they  seek. 

The  Church  has  been  too  much  occupied  in 
cultivating  itself.  The  main  job  of  the  minis- 
ter has  been  preaching  acceptably  to  his  own 
congregation  and  calling  on  them  enough  times 
in  a  year  to  keep  them  satisfied.  The  time  has 
come  to  sow  the  seed  of  the  Kingdom  broadcast. 
The  Church  through  its  ministers  and  laymen 
must  carry  the  Gospel  of  Christ  into  the  banks 
and  markets,  the  stores  and  factories,  the  courts 
and  legislatures.  Much  can  be  done  by  preach- 
ing, but  the  preaching  should  not  be  limited  to 


96  On  to  Christ 


the  pulpit.  Ministers  can  arrange  to  speak  in 
factories  and  office  buildings  at  the  noon  hour. 
Some  years  ago  a  noonday  meeting  was  held  in 
a  large  machine  shop.  It  was  held  every  week 
during  the  winter  season  for  a  number  of  years. 
Finally  the  men's  interest  was  put  to  the  test. 
A  red-hot  political  campaign  was  on.  One  of 
the  political  parties  decided  to  hold  a  rally  just 
outside  of  the  shop  at  the  hour  of  this  service. 
Hardly  a  man  attended  the  political  rally  and 
most  of  them  were  indignant  that  any  one 
should  interfere  with  their  preacher  and  his 
meeting.  Some  of  the  men  went  so  far  as  to 
say  that  this  service  had  changed  the  moral 
atmosphere  of  the  shop.  This  work  can  be  multi- 
plied. Doors  open  on  all  sides.  Christ  preached 
'on  the  street  and  on  the  hills  of  Galilee.  His 
disciples  can  find  a  store  or  factory,  street 
comer  or  park  where  the  message  can  be  given. 

A  Christian  nation  means  more  than  a  nation 
that  has  some  church  members  within  its 
bounds.  A  Christian  nation  means  a  nation 
that  is  permeated,  in  its  business  and  social  life, 
in  its  economic  customs  and  legislative  acts, 
with  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  Christ. 

The  social  and  economic  life  of  a  people  can 
only  be  permeated  by  those  ideals  that  are  con- 
stantly held  before  them.  The  Church  has  only 
held  these  ideals  up  to  those  who  already  cared 


The  Need  of  a  Practical  Christianity       97 

enough  about  them  to  go  out  of  their  way  and 
into  a  special  building  to  hear  its  message. 
The  great  mass  of  struggling  souls  surge  by 
the  doors  of  the  Church.  They  need  the  inspi- 
ration of  Christ  and  they  need  to  be  reminded  of 
God.  The  Church  can  reach  them  by  going 
after  them.  The  great  mass  of  men  will  never 
of  their  own  volition  seek  for  the  hidden  treas- 
ures of  the  Church. 

The  Church  must  take  her'  treasure  in  her 
hand  and  go  after  men.  She  must  show  what 
she  has  and  what  she  can  do.  She  must  con- 
vince the  gainsaying  and  answer  foolish  ques- 
tions courteously  and  with  infinite  tact..  Her 
ideals  must  be  before  the  whole  nation  and  her 
standards  must  be  thoroughly  understood.  A 
nation  is  not  a-  Christian  nation  until  it  con- 
sciously strives  to  attain  the  ideals  established 
by  Christ.  His  standards  for  personal  and 
social  morality  must  be  woven  into  its  custom 
and  practice. 

This  practical  application  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  daily  life  of  men  was  the  thing  that  gave 
Christ  His  unique  power.  He  mingled  with 
men  so  much  that  His  critics  called  Him  Ifie 
friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.  No  one  could 
honestly  call  the  Church  of  today  a  friend  of 
the  publican  and  sinner.  The  publican  is  held 
up  to  scorn  by  our  pulpits  and  the  sinner  is 


98  On  to  Christ 


scorched  by  fiery  denunciations.  Christ  was  the 
Great  Physician.  He  sought  the  places  where 
there  were  plenty  of  patients  to  furnish  Him 
with  a  practice.  Many  modern  ministers  are 
satisfied  with  a  small  practice  of  spiritual 
neurasthenics  that  can  be  comforted  with  bread 
pills  or  a  little  sugar  and  water. 

We  need  a  new  grip.  Sin  has  shown  its 
power  in  devastating  the  world.  The  Church 
needs  the  men  of  all  nations.  The  men  of  all 
nations  need  the  Church.  Practical  Christianity 
is  the  thing  that  appeals  to  them.  This  is  what 
Christ  preached  and  practised.  The  time  has 
come  to  modify  and  change  some  of  our  Church 
customs.  If  we  are  to  meet  the  religious  needs 
of  the  coming  generation  we  must  start  to  do 
this  work  now. 


CEYSTALLISING  THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  INARTICULATE 

MUCH  was  written  during  the  war  on  the 
religious  life  of  the  soldier.  This 
mass  of  material  shows  that  many  sol- 
diers are  deeply  religious  without  appreciating 
it  and  that  they  seldom  connect  their  religious 
interest  with  the  Church.  These  two  facts  are 
of  vital  interest  to  all  interested  in  the  future 
of  the  Church  and  its  influence  in  the  world. 

This  does  not  mean  the  discovery  of  a  new 
spiritual  experience.  Many  ministers  are 
familiar  with  the  same  state  of  mind  in  men 
connected  with  their  own  parishes. 

The  Church  has  made  the  mistake  of  ignor- 
ing this  sort  of  religious  interest  because  it  is 
so  vague  that  it  is  hard  to  define  and  it  exists 
in  such  unexpected  places.  Not  infrequently  it 
manifests  itself  in  the  lives  of  people  who  show 
serious  elements  of  moral  weakness.  Christ 
knew  the  possibilities  of  this  sort  of  a  religious 
interest,  for  when  the  religionists  of  His  day 
rejected  Him,  He  went  to  the  publicans,  the  men 
of  shady  business  reputation,  and  to  the  sinner, 

99 


lOO  On  to  Christ 


who  was  not  considered  worthy  of  any  social 
consideration,  and  taught  them  the  things  of 
God.  He  took  their  inarticulated  religious  in- 
terest as  a  foundation  on  which  to  build  His 
Kingdom  on  earth  because  He  knew  that  it  was 
capable  of  being  developed  into  a  vigorous 
spiritual  life. 

Life  in  the  trenches  and  personal  contact  with 
men  in  the  cantonments  have  shown  us  how 
widespread  this  spiritual  condition  is  and  what 
an  opportunity  it  offers  to  the  Church.  The 
dislocation  of  a  man's  ordinary  routine  and  the 
obligations  of  military  training  have  in  many 
cases  revealed  the  hidden  aspirations  of  souls 
that  do  not  know  how  to  give  voice  to  their 
longings.  The  trials  of  warfare  and  the  dangers 
of  the  battlefield  have  intensified  this  religious 
interest. 

The  Church  must  do  as  Christ  did.  It  must 
go  out  into  the  highways  and  byways  seeking 
all  men  who  have  an  inarticulated  longing  for 
God.  In  taking  up  this  work  we  must  not  let 
ourselves  be  swept  away  by  our  emotions  or 
blinded  to  the  true  situation. 

Soldiers  have  never  before  been  considered 
as  religious  men,  and  now  we  have  to  constantly 
remind  ourselves  that  every  soldier  is  not  a 
saint.     Unfortunately  there  are  some  men  in 


The  Religion  of  the  Inarticulate     loi 

khaki  who  have  no  other  ambition  than  the 
satisfaction  of  their  sensual  appetites.  These 
men  have  all  the  weaknesses  and  vices  usually 
found  in  an  army,  but  with  them  is  a  large 
number  who  have  an  indefinite  but  deeply  seated 
religious  longing.  This  has  been  created  by 
two  things.  The  causes  of  this  war  are  funda- 
mentally moral  and  spiritual.  America  did  not 
enter  it  with  any  selfish  purpose  or  ambition. 
It  was  forced  upon  us  by  the  intrigues  and  sins 
of  Germany.  Men  had  to  fight  or  sacrifice  those 
things  that  are  highest  and  noblest  in  civilisa- 
tion. International  honesty  and  honour  were 
at  stake.  This  clear-cut  issue  called  forth  the 
best  in  every  soldier.  It  made  him  feel  the 
responsibility  and  nobleness  of  his  service  and 
developed  the  best  in  his  character. 

The  other  cause  of  this  religious  emotion  is 
largely  due  to  the  Government's  campaign  of 
education.  The  Government  quickly  realised 
that  many  men  were  ignorant  of  the  cause  of 
the  war,  and  determined  to  enlighten  them.  The 
officers,  and  speakers  of  national  prominence, 
were  used  to  explain  just  what  the  war  meant 
and  show  why  this  country  had  to  fight.  The 
Y.M.C.A.,  Red  Cross,  and  other  welfare  or- 
ganisations were  used  in  the  camps  and  canton- 
ments for  the  same  purpose.    The  response  of 


I02  On  to   Christ 


the  men  to  this  campaign  of  education  was 
remarkable.  They  were  seldom  restless  or 
inattentive. 

One  night  a  short  talk  was  to  be  given  in  a 
crowded  Hut  before  the  movies.  The  Y.M. 
C.A.  secretary  in  charge  doubted  if  the  men's 
interest  could  be  held  for  more  than  ten  minutes. 
The  speaker  was  so  impressed  by  the  men's 
attention  while  he  was  speaking  that  he  con- 
tinued to  talk  for  twenty-five  minutes.  When 
he  stopped  the  men  continued  to  applaud  until 
the  speaker  came  back  on  the  stage  and  told 
them  that  he  would  give  them  another  talk  on 
the  same  subject  in  a  couple  of  days.  This  is 
the  only  instance  I  ever  heard  of  where  the 
soldiers  encored  a  speaker  on  any  subject  while 
they  were  waiting  for  the  movies.  They  were 
usually  restless  and  impatient  of  all  delay.  It 
was  not  the  speech  that  caught  the  men.  It 
was  the  subject. 

This  was  the  most  spectacular  manifestation 
of  the  men's  interest  that  came  to  my  attention, 
but  it  was  no  exception  to  the  general  rule. 
Whenever  these  talks  were  given  the  men  were 
anxious  to  hear  the  facts.  Many  Y.M. C.A. 
secretaries  have  said  that  it  was  the  only  kind 
of  a  lecture  that  held  the  attention  of  all  the 
men.  It  was  not  unusual  to  have  from  one-third 
to  one-half  of  an  audience  of  soldiers  get  up  and 


The  Religion  of  the  Inarticulate     103 

walk  out  during  other  lectures.  It  was  rare, 
indeed,  when  any  men  left  while  talks  on  the 
causes  and  purposes  of  the  war  were  being 
given.  It  was  the  one  thing  that  they  were 
all  interested  in. 

This  campaign  of  education  was  carried  on 
primarily  to  build  up  the  morale  of  the  Army. 
It  also  touched  a  responsive  chord  in  many  a 
man's  spiritual  nature.  These  men  caught  a 
spiritual  vision.  They  became  the  crusaders 
of  civilisation.  They  were  willing  to  fight  and 
die  for  an  ideal.  For  the  first  time  in  their  lives 
self-sacrifice  and  loyalty  to  an  ideal  became  a 
real  power.  They  had  to  forget  themselves  and 
their  own  ambitions  to  serve  a  great  cause. 

Many  of  them  were  not  religious  at  home. 
They  did  not  consider  themselves  religious  while 
in  the  Army.  They  only  caught  a  vision  of 
what  they  were  fighting  for,  and  they  gladly 
gave  this  ideal  both  service  and  sacrifice.  The 
life  they  lead  and  the  horrors  they  faced  have 
touched  a  new  chord  in  their  souls.  They  re- 
sponded nobly.  There  is  a  real  spirituality  in 
risking  one 's  life  for  a  comrade  or  volunteering 
in  a  moment  of  great  danger.  Their  hearts  have 
been  kindled  by  new  thoughts  and  motives.  It 
is  the  awakening  of  their  soul.  They  have  new 
aspirations  and  new  hopes.  New  responsibili- 
ties are  recognised  and  new  emotions  felt.  This 


I04  On  to   Christ 


is  the  spirit  that  Donald  Hankey  has  called  the 
Keligion  of  the  Inarticulate. 

Many  of  them  have  proven  the  reality  of  their 
spiritual  life  by  the  Great  Sacrifice.  Thousands 
of  them  have  come  home.  Will  the  New  Era 
give  them  a  cold  formal  Church  droning  out  the 
rubrics  of  past  ages  or  will  it  develop  a  Church 
aglow  with  life  and  stretching  every  nerve  to 
meet  the  future? 

The  old  stereotyped  methods  will  not  appeal 
to  them.  A  message  as  dry  as  dust  and  as  life- 
less as  ashes  cannot  hold  them.  Their  faith  is 
vague,  but  it  is  pulsing  with  vitality.  They  want 
life  and  help  in  solving  the  problems  of  life. 
Their  whole  point  of  view  is  coloured  and  influ- 
enced by  their  recent  experience.  They  have 
borne  the  burden  of  an  arduous  training  for  a 
great  cause.  They  have  felt  the  shock  of  battle. 
Their  souls  bear  the  mark  of  their  recent 
experiences  just  as  truly  as  their  bodies.  Chris- 
tianity to  appeal  to  them  must  not  savour  of 
bygone  ages.  It  must  tingle  with  life  and  have 
a  grip  on  reality.  They  want  spirituality,  but 
they  want  a  spirituality  that  will  help  them  live 
for  something  real.  Unless  something  definite 
and  practical  is  done  to  meet  their  need  they 
will  sink  back  into  selfishness  and  sin.  Their 
aspirations  will  grow  cold  and  their  morals  will 
deteriorate.    Instead  of  helping  the  future  civil- 


The  Religion  of  the  Inarticulate     105 

isation  of  America  they  will  be  a  clog  and 
handicap. 

An  organised  evangelistic  effort  will  not  meet 
this  need.  There  is  no  doubt  but  such  a  move- 
ment would  win  many  men  for  the  Church.  It 
would  also  alienate  many  others.  The  number 
it  won  could  be  tabulated  and  prove  its  success 
to  those  who  wanted  such  a  proof.  The  number 
it  lost  could  never  be  calculated  this  side  of 
eternity.  Its  fictitious  success  would  do  incal- 
culable harm.  It  would  put  the  new  wine  of  the 
spirit  into  the  old  mne-skins  of  form  and 
formula  and  end  in  the  loss  of  both.  There  is 
no  sense  of  using  old  phrases  in  new  conditions. 
They  do  not  fit.  How  can  we  talk  of  the  need 
of  religious  experience  to  men  who  have  had 
such  an  experience  but  do  not  know  it?  We 
have  no  desire  to  disparage  evangelistic  effort 
in  its  right  place.  It  has  an  important  place  in 
the  programme  of  preaching,  but  this  is  not 
the  time  to  use  it  in  the  old  way.  The  hour 
calls  for  a  more  fundamental  and  drastic  treat- 
ment. It  requires  an  effort  to  show  men  the 
significance  of  their  aspirations  and  to  crystal- 
lise their  spiritual  life  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

An  effort  to  capitalise  the  generosity  of  the 
Church  created  by  the  experiences  of  the  past 
years  would  undoubtedly  bring  in  large  sums 
of  money,  but  such  an  effort  fails  to  realise  the 


io6  On  to  Christ 


real  need.  The  Church's  strength  is  not  in  its 
financial  resources  but  in  its  spiritual  life.  The 
opportunity  of  the  New  Era  calls  for  a  new 
appreciation  and  application  of  spiritual  truth. 
The  Church  has  never  before  had  to  face  a 
problem  like  it.  It  must  conserve  the  truth  of 
the  past  and  discard  its  husks. 

Here  is  a  problem  to  tax  the  keenest  theolog- 
ical student  and  the  most  wide-awake  pastor. 
Its  difficulty  is  only  equalled  by  its  importance. 
Its  solution  will  require  consecrated  intellect 
and  broad  sympathy.  The  Gospel  of  Christ 
when  rightly  interpreted  has  the  answer  to  this 
need,  but  it  must  receive  a  new  and  vital  inter- 
pretation. A  revolution  as  great  as  the  Prot- 
estant Reformation  is  needed  to  meet  this  need. 
The  men  who  know  what  real  sin  is  will  scoff 
at  the  Church  or  turn  away  sorrowfully  if  she 
insists  on  branding  as  sin  such  things  as  smok- 
ing and  moving  pictures. 

One  of  the  most  imperative  needs  of  the  New 
Era  in  this  connection  is  to  have  the  ministers 
of  America  rise  above  the  ministerial  type  of 
mind.  They  have  to  deal  with  men  and  men's 
problems,  with  questions  of  business  readjust- 
ment and  social  sins.  The  study  and  ministerial 
meetings  are  at  best  but  a  poor  preparation  for 
grappling  with  these  problems.  While  still 
keeping  up  his  studies  and  not  neglecting  to 


The  Religion  of  the  Inarticulate     107 

meet  with  other  ministers  for  social  intercourse 
and  inspiration,  he  must  mingle  more  with  men 
and  gain  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  the  things 
that  they  are  thinking  about  and  dealing  with. 

One  young  minister  some  years  ago  tried  to 
meet  this  need  by  taking  lunch  one  day  a  week 
at  the  club  where  most  of  his  men  lunched.  The 
men  of  his  parish  knew  that  the  pastor  would  be 
at  the  club  from  twelve  to  two  on  Thursdays. 
Some  would  drop  in  for  a  hurried  bite  and  short 
chat.  Others,  when  they  had  the  time,  stayed 
longer.  Business,  politics,  civics,  reform  move- 
ments, and  athletics  were  all  discussed  at  differ- 
ent times.  This  scheme  worked  well  in  this 
parish,  as  it  met  the  local  needs  and  conditions. 

Other  ministers  play  golf,  or  indulge  in  other 
outdoor  sports  with  their  men.  It  does  not  mat- 
ter how  it  is  done  as  long  as  the  minister  gets 
to  know  his  men  as  a  man  and  not  as  a  minister. 
He  will  be  surprised  at  the  number  of  men  he 
finds  that  want  to  help  make  this  a  better  and 
purer  world.  "When  they  get  to  know  their  min- 
ister as  a  man  they  overcome  their  shyness  and 
show  their  real  selves.  At  first  he  is  the  * 'min- 
ister," and  must  be  treated  with  so  much  respect 
and  consideration  that  the  minister  finds  it  hard 
to  know  what  men  are  thinking  about.  The  in- 
terest of  the  men  of  America  cannot  be  awak- 
ened in  trivialities,  but  they  readily  respond  to 


io8  On  to   Christ 


big  issues.  The  ministers  must  think  deeply 
and  act  wisely  to  avail  themselves  of  this  oppor- 
tunity for  the  New  Era. 

Donald  Hankey  shows  the  heart  of  the  prob- 
lem when  he  says,  ^^Here  were  men  who  believed 
absolutely  in  the  Christian  virtues  of  unselfish- 
ness, generosity,  charity,  and  humility,  without 
ever  connecting  them  in  their  minds  with  Christ ; 
and  at  the  same  time  what  they  did  associate 
with  Christianity  was  just  on  a  par  with  the 
formalism  and  smug  self-righteousness  which 
Christ  spent  His  whole  life  in  trying  to 
destroy.'* 

The  problem  and  the  opportunity  of  the 
Church  lies  right  here.  Unconsciously  it  has 
drifted  away  from  the  simplicity  of  Christ.  It 
has  used  its  creeds  and  theology  as  sacred 
symbols  that  must  be  safeguarded  and  protected 
instead  of  expressions  of  faith  that  help  and 
strengthen  men. 

In  too  many  cases  the  Bible  has  become  a 
storehouse  of  texts  for  the  minister  instead  of 
the  inspirer  of  life.  Professor  L.  P.  Jacks 
in  one  of  his  stimulating  and  illuminating  stor- 
ies makes  his  hero,  Snarley  Bob,  the  spiritual 
man  outside  of  the  Church,  say  when  he  is 
asked  about  the  Bible,  **Well,  that's  a  good 
old  book,  but  there's  some  things  in  it  that's  no 
good  to  anybody — except  to  talkin'  men." 

And  that  is  the  way  it  has  been  used.    We 


The  Religion  of  the  Inarticulate     109 

realise  this  when  we  hear  the  twisted  utter- 
ances of  the  pulpit.  Many  sermons  on  the 
Pillars  of  the  Temple,  the  Sea  of  Glass,  or  the 
Flying  Horsemen  are  merely  brilliant  rhetoric 
and  prose  poetry.  They  only  appeal  to  the 
intellectual  side  of  a  man.  They  have  no  prac- 
tical meaning  or  message.  The  saints  some- 
times enjoy  them.  The  sinners  only  sneer  at 
their  superficiality.  Snarley  Bob  was  right. 
There  is  much  in  the  Bible  only  good  for  talking 
men,  and  these  things  have  been  too  much  in 
evidence.  The  Good  Old  Book  contains  another 
message,  it  is  the  word  of  Christ, — *^Go  ye  and 
learn  what  that  meaneth,  I  will  have  mercy, 
and  not  sacrifice ;  for  I  am  come  not  to  call  the 
righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance.''  Here  is 
the  Church's  problem  and  opportunity.  It  is 
not  with  the  soldiers,  it  is  with  herself.  It  is  to 
learn  and  practise  the  religion  of  God's  love 
shown  in  deeds  of  loving-kindness  and  self- 
sacrifice  instead  of  elaborating  her  ritual  or 
theology.  It  is  to  create  its  organisation  and 
life  so  as  to  reach  the  sinner  who  has  an  inar- 
ticulated  spiritual  longing  rather  than  to  coddle 
saints  who  have  too  much  religion  in  their 
heads  and  not  enough  in  their  daily  life.  There 
has  been  too  much  formalism  in  the  Church, 
too  much  emphasis  on  doctrines  and  dogmas,  too 
much  exaltation  of  rituals  and  rites  and  too 


no  On  to   Christ 


little  realisation  of  the  practical  problems  that 
busy  men  face.  It  is  true  that  the  student  and 
theologian  may  see  in  these  things  their  the- 
oretical significance  and  importance.  The  man 
on  the  street  has  neither  the  ability  nor  the 
inclination  to  study  them. 

While  the  Church  has  been  busy  talking  about 
the  theory  of  its  doctrines  she  has  neglected  the 
spiritual  life  of  many  outside  of  the  fold.  There 
is  so  much  true  Christianity  outside  of  the 
Church  that  the  Church  should  realise  that  she 
is  at  fault.  The  time  has  come  for  a  real 
spiritual  revival  in  the  Church.  This  is  not  a 
new  Grospel.  It  is  a  reemphasis  of  Christ's 
message  enlarged  by  two  thousand  years  of 
experience  and  by  the  needs  of  the  present  hour. 
Christ  came  not  to  teach  theology  or  to  preach 
dogma.  He  had  definite  and  clear-cut  religious 
beliefs.  He  interpreted  them  by  living  for  oth- 
ers. He  taught  the  love  of  God  by  loving  men. 
When  John  the  Baptist  was  troubled  and  in 
prison  he  sent  his  disciples  to  ask  Christ  for 
some  proof  of  His  Messiahship.  Christ 
answered  by  telling  the  disciples  to  go  back 
and  tell  John  about  His  life  and  work.  This  is 
the  final  proof  of  Christianity.  It  is  easy  to 
preach  of  self-sacrifice,  but  it  is  hard  to  prac- 
tise it.  The  Church  has  preached.  This  means 
that  we  will  have  less  eloquence  in  the  pulpit 
but  more  in  the  street.    Tliis  is  a  simpler  gospel 


The  Religion  of  the  Inarticulate     iii 

and  one  that  the  labouring-man  can  understand. 
It  means  that  church  officers  will  not  testify 
alone  by  passing  the  plate  in  broadcloth  on  Sun- 
day morning  or  in  the  quiet  retirement  of  the 
prayer  meeting,  but  they  will  testify  by  deeds 
of  loving-mercy  on  the  street  and  in  just  and 
righteous  treatment  of  their  employees  in  the 
factory  and  the  store.  A  Christian  man  is  not 
a  sour-faced,  sanctimonious  old  hypocrite,  as 
the  caricaturists  would  have  us  think.  He  is 
the  clear-eyed  lover  of  God  who  lives  for  God 
by  living  for  men.  This  is  the  kind  of  character 
all  men  honour. 

This  conception  of  Christianity  requires  a 
simpler  form  of  preaching,  less  elaborate  ser- 
vices, and  a  new  emphasis  on  neglected  truths. 
This  is  not  a  new  interpretation  of  Christianity, 
it  is  so  old  that  it  comes  with  startling  newness. 
It  is  as  old  as  the  Gospel  itself.  It  requires  the 
rewriting  of  much  that  we  hold  sacred.  It 
means  that  meekness,  loving-kindness,  self- 
sacrificing  service,  and  thoughtfulness  for  oth- 
ers are  the  cardinal  principles  that  show  our 
love  of  God.  It  means  a  broadening  of  the 
Church  to  limits  of  Christ's  love. 

Woe  unto  us  and  our  children  if  we  fail  to 
learn  this  lesson!  woe  unto  America  and  the 
world  if  we  fail  to  solve  this  problem ! 


PART    II 

THE  FUTURE:  ITS  HOPE  AND 
PROMISE 


VI 

THE  KETUEN   OF   FAITH 

THE  study  we  have  been  making  of  the 
Church  and  its  past  failures  has  been  an 
unpleasant  experience.  No  Christian 
likes  to  see  the  weaknesses  or  failings  of  the 
Church  pointed  out.  But  this  investigation  is 
necessary  if  we  are  to  understand  how  to  em- 
phasise the  Gospel  so  as  to  reach  the  men  of  the 
New  Era.  Temporarily  we  may  find  ourselves 
in  the  same  despondent  state  of  mind  illustrated 
by  Matthew  Arnold  in  his  poem  **  Dover 
Beach  ''  where  he  says — 

''The  Sea  of  faith 
Was  once,  too,  at  the  full,  and  round  earth's  shore 
Lay  like  the  folds  of  a  bright  girdle  furled. 
But  now  I  only  hear 
Its  melancholy,  long,  withdrawing  roar, 
Retreating,  to  the  breath 
Of  the  night-wind,  down  vast  edges  drear 
And  naked  shingles  of  the  world. ' ' 

But  we  do  not  intend  to  remain  on  '*  Dover 
Beach''  listening  to  the  night  wind  and  retreat- 

115 


Ii6  On  to  Christ 


ing  tide.  We  are  going  forth  to  meet  tlie  sun- 
rise of  a  new  day,  when  the  tide  has  turned  and 
is  once  more  rolling  in  with  each  wave  flashing 
in  the  sunlight  and  each  ripple  singing  a  song 
of  joy. 

We  have  to  pass  through  the  night  and  feel 
its  mystery  and  sadness  to  learn  how  to  appre- 
ciate and  use  the  daylight.  We  have  to  hear 
the  sob  of  the  receding  tide  and  see  the  desola- 
tion of  the  mud-flats  to  appreciate  the  sparkling 
waves  of  the  flood  tide  so  as  to  use  to  the  full 
the  glory  and  strength  of  a  renewed  faith. 

To  appreciate  the  position  we  are  in  we 
ought  to  remind  ourselves  that  a  great  mental 
or  spiritual  shock  has  a  paralysing  effect.  It 
seems  to  numb  both  mind  and  soul.  Christ's 
death  was  such  a  shock  to  His  disciples.  They 
had  looked  upon  him  as  the  hope  of  Israel.  All 
their  love  of  country  and  religious  enthusiasm 
had  been  centred  upon  Him  as  an  earthly  king 
— the  son  of  David — the  long-looked-for  re- 
deemer of  His  race.  Their  faith  had  been  faith 
in  an  earthly  king  and  kingdom.  Christ's 
betrayal  and  rejection  destroyed  all  hope  of  this 
attainment,  and  we  are  not  surprised  to  read 
that  ^'they  all  forsook  him  and  fled."  This 
tragic  shock  only  momentarily  destroyed  their 
faith. 

We  are  not  surprised  to  read  that  these  earn- 


The  Return  of  Faith  117 

est  men  and  women  were  gathered  in  a  little 
group  at  the  Cross  watching  the  awful  tragedy 
there  enacted.  Their  love  and  loyalty  had  sur- 
vived the  issue,  and  there  at  the  Cross  they 
were  laying  a  new  foundation  for  a  new  faith. 
The  old  hope  of  an  earthly  king  and  kingdom 
was  gone  and  gone  forever,  but  they  were  at 
the  beginning  of  a  faith  in  a  heavenly  kingdom 
and  a  spiritual  Saviour.  For  a  moment  the 
blow  that  fell  upon  them  must  have  seemed  to 
have  killing  weight.  Their  minds  and  their 
souls  shrank  when  they  thought  of  the  morrow. 
Everything  was  gone,  but  it  was  only  gone  to 
return  in  a  better  way. 

Such  shocks  come  not  only  to  groups  of  peo- 
ple, but  they  also  come  to  individuals.  Alfred 
Tennyson,  when  a  young  man,  had  his  faith 
numbed  by  the  death  of  his  friend  Arthur  Hal- 
lam.  We  can  read  the  whole  story  of  his  mental 
and  spiritual  agony  in  '^In  Memoriam."  He 
did  not  write  this  poem  for  publication  but  to 
find  relief  for  his  pent-up  emotions.  He  starts 
with — 

*  *  Thou  madest  man  he  knows  not  why, 
He  thinks  he  was  not  made  to  die.'* 

The  whole  meaning  of  life  is  here  uncertain. 
He  cannot  feel  that  death  is  the  goal  of  God's 
purpose,  but  he  does  not  know  what  that  pur- 


Ii8  On  to   Christ 


pose  is.  We  see  his  soul  pass  through  doubt 
and  uncertainty  during  the  following  years. 
Grief  reigns  supreme.  Finally  he  comes  out 
into  the  light  and  he  closes  with — 

**One  God,  one  law,  one  element 
And  one  far-off  divine  event 
To  which  the  whole  creation  moves. ' ' 

Here  faith  has  returned,  and  he  has  found 
God's  purpose  in  his  act  of  creation.  He  began 
with  a  faith  in  his  friend  and  in  a  life  of  friend- 
ship. He  ends  with  faith  in  God  and  His  pur- 
pose. It  is  no  longer  a  thing  of  immediate 
attainment.  It  is  a  **far-off  divine  event"  and 
it  controls  'Hhe  whole  creation." 

We  have  seen  others  walk  through  the  valley 
of  the  shadow  of  death  with  bleeding  hearts  and 
numb  faith.  We  have  seen  their  earthly  hopes 
crushed  and  their  lives  wrecked  by  this  dark 
shadow.  They  have  finally  climbed  to  the  moun- 
tain tops  and  their  faces  have  been  illumined 
by  the  rising  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  and 
we  have  heard  them  sing  the  Psalm  of  Eternal 
Life:  ^^I  shall  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord 
forever."  Out  of  their  pain  and  despair  they 
have  come  to  a  better  faith  and  through  their 
darkness  they  have  found  light. 

Recently  many  devout  Christians  have  had 
their   faith   suffer   from   a   paralysing  shock. 


The  Return  of  Faith  119 

For  a  generation  the  pulpits  of  the  Church  have 
echoed  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ's  kingdom  on 
earth.  Heaven  has  seemed  very  far  off  and  the 
needs  of  the  men  about  us  have  seemed  very 
near.  The  Church  has  had  faith  in  the  spiritual 
power  of  God  to  overcome  principalities  and 
powers,  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world 
and  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places.  This 
was  no  small  faith.  It  sent  lonely  men  and  frail 
women  forth  in  the  busy  marts  of  life  to  battle 
valiantly  with  entrenched  evils.  It  brought 
home  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  Christianity 
its  obligation  to  the  poor  and  the  oppressed.  It 
raised  womanhood  and  safeguarded  childhood. 
It  taught  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  our  obli- 
gation for  the  public  weal.  It  was  a  great 
faith  for  this  earth,  but  it  had  its  limitations. 
It  made  us  accept  peace  as  a  son's  portion.  We 
believed  that  war  was  a  relic  of  barbarism  and 
a  practice  of  the  Dark  Ages.  Its  brutality  and 
cruelty  seemed  very  distant  from  our  well- 
organised  and  peaceful  lives.  Even  during  the 
first  two  and  a  half  years  of  the  Great  War  it 
was  so  far  removed  from  us  that  we  hardly 
realised  what  it  meant.  We  rejoiced  in  a 
President  who  had  kept  us  out  of  the  war,  and 
we  were  too  proud  to  fight. 

Then  came  the  great  shock.    We  were  in  the 
war  and  our  men  were  facing  its  perils  and  our 


I20  On  to   Christ 


hearts  felt  its  burden.  The  shock  was  so  great 
that  many  found  their  faith  numb  and  their 
souls  wracked  with  doubt. 

The  year  of  preparation  and  the  severe 
struggle  from  July  18th  until  November  11th, 
1918,  did  not  give  us  time  to  absorb  the  shock 
that  we  had  suffered.  Instead  of  a  bitter  win- 
ter of  hunger  and  anxiety  we  had  two  howling 
saturnalia  of  victory  in  November.  We  so  re- 
joiced in  our  victory  that  our  groping  faith 
stumbled  and  fell.  It  made  one  or  two  feeble 
efforts  to  rise  and  go  forward  and  then  with  a 
shrug  of  its  hypothetical  shoulders  it  lay  down 
and  went  to  sleep. 

The  experience  of  the  disciples  at  the  rejec- 
tion of  Christ  and  of  individuals  who  have 
passed  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death  indicate  for  us  how  our  faith  can  return. 
It  has  been  resting  from  its  shock  and  it  needs 
to  be  shaken  into  new  life  and  purpose. 

These  dark  moments  in  the  lives  of  men  and 
nations  are  often  due  to  man's  sin.  No  word 
we  can  utter  can  take  away  the  enormity  of  the 
act  of  treachery  that  caused  Christ's  death. 
The  Jews  who  rejected  Him  and  killed  Him  were 
brutal  murderers  sacrificing  an  innocent  man 
for  what  they  thought  was  the  well-being  of 
their  personal  aims  and  their  national  greatness. 
It  was  a  destructive  moment  in  a  constructive 


The  Return  of  Faith  121 

process.  It  does  not  matter  how  constructive 
the  process  may  be,  the  destructive  moment  is 
always  painful  and  harassing.  It  was  Glod 
using  man's  sin  to  bring  home  to  man  a  larger 
spiritual  truth  than  He  had  yet  been  able  to 
learn.  The  sin  of  the  Jews  taught  us  to  know 
the  atonement  of  Christ,  and  this  was  worth 
all  the  pain  the  disciples  had  to  suffer. 

We,  too,  have  suffered  because  of  sin.  Our 
sin  has  been  the  love  of  pleasure  and  self- 
indulgence.  In  most  cases  degrading  forms  of 
sin  and  gross  immorality  have  repelled  us.  Life 
was  beautiful  and  filled  with  comfort.  It  was 
easy-going  and  enjoyable.  We  only  did  the 
thing  we  liked  because  we  liked  to  do  it  and  it 
did  no  harm.  We  lost  the  sense  of  reality  of 
life.  We  were  as  much  afraid  of  being  bored 
as  we  were  of  committing  a  crime.  All  this 
must  be  changed.  Life  is  real  and  vital.  Severe 
duties  must  be  done  and  hard  tasks  have  to  be 
undertaken.  Our  weak  and  flabby  souls  have 
to  develop  spiritual  muscle  and  sinew.  This 
development  makes  our  spiritual  bodies  ache 
with  pain,  but  they  are  the  pains  of  a  renewed 
life  and  strength. 

The  return  of  faith  takes  time,  it  never  comes 
back  in  a  single  day.  It  is  a  far  cry  from  the 
little  group  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross  watching 
the  death  of  a  loved  master  and  the  two  disci- 


122  On  to   Christ 


pies  at  the  village  of  Emmaus  asking  the 
Stranger  to  *^  abide  with  us,  for  it  is  toward 
evening  and  the  day  is  far  spent,"  to  St.  PanPs 
triumphant  **0  death,  where  is  thy  sting:  O 
grave,  where  is  thy  victory ! ' '  They  had  experi- 
enced much  in  the  intervening  years.  They  had 
learned  what  it  was  to  labour  and  to  suffer 
and  to  see  their  loved  ones  die  through  perse- 
cution. The  new  faith  had  grown  stronger  with 
every  trial.  It  possessed  the  mind  and  heart 
and  soul.  No  blow  could  shake  it  and  no  disap- 
pointment could  wreck  it.  The  same  thing  was 
true  with  Alfred  Tennyson.  It  takes  us  only  a 
short  time  to  read  his  great  poem,  but  it  took 
him  years  to  work  his  way  through  its  varying 
experiences  to  its  triumphant  spiritual  con- 
clusion. 

And  we  today  cannot  ask  our  faith,  which  has 
been  enormously  overemphasising  Christ's 
kingdom  on  earth,  to  transform  itself  in  a 
moment  to  a  virile  and  vital  faith  in  Christ's 
kingdom  in  heaven.  We  have  overemphasised 
one  truth  and  we  must  not  forget  that  Christ's 
kingdom  on  earth  is  true  and  it  must  still  be 
sought  and  worked  for,  but  we  must  reempha- 
sise  Christ's  kingdom  in  heaven.  That  kingdom 
has  seemed  very  far  distant  to  us  in  the  past, 
but  in  recent  months  it  has  come  very  near  and 
very  dear  to  us.     Life  beyond  the  grave  has 


The  Return  of  Faith  123 

become  a  vital  question.  We  believe  in  His 
Kingdom  in  heaven,  and  because  of  this  faith 
we  labour  on  through  disappointment  and  dis- 
couragement for  His  Kingdom  on  earth. 

This  new  faith  has  a  new  sense  of  value.  As 
the  disciples  lost  faith  in  an  earthly  king  and 
kingdom  and  found  faith  in  this  heavenly  king- 
dom, so  must  we  rearrange  our  sense  of  values 
and  send  forth  a  clearer  sounding  note  of  spirit- 
ual truth.  The  most  valuable  thing  in  life  is 
not  economic  ease  but  ethical  honesty  and 
spiritual  purity.  Christ  did  not  promise  His 
disciples  an  easy  road  or  pleasant  surround- 
ings. He  promised  them  toil,  persecution,  and 
death  itself,  and  in  the  world  to  come  life  ever- 
lasting. He  Himself  was  poor  with  a  poverty 
that  gave  Him  no  home,  but  He  was  rich  in  His 
purity  of  life  and  integrity  of  soul. 

At  this  time  we  need  to  recall  this  spiritual 
note  in  His  life  and  work.  Unconsciously  and 
unintentionally  we  have  been  materialising  our 
conception  of  Christ's  Kingdom.  We  have  let 
the  materialism  of  our  own  lives  control  our 
thoughts  of  Christ  and  His  purpose.  We  need 
to  let  Christ  spiritualise  the  materialism  in 
which  we  must  live  and  labour.  God  has  been 
doing  this  for  us  through  the  things  we  suffered. 
Our  sufferings  open  the  door  to  Him  whom  the 
prophet  of  old  called  a  Suffering  Servant.    In 


124  O^  ^^   Christ 


His  companionship  we  learn  to  know  the  bless- 
ing of  that  peace  that  the  world  does  not  give 
and  cannot  take  away.  This  peace  of  God 
strengthens  our  hearts,  and  we  are  enabled  to 
rise  above  doubt  and  uncertainty  and  labour 
on  both  for  Christ's  Kingdom  on  earth  and  also 
for  His  Kingdom  in  heaven. 

This  is  the  Faith  that  will  return.  It  is  a 
spiritual  experience  transforming  our  material- 
istic conception  of  values.  It  does  not  modify 
our  interest  in  every  effort  to  help  the  weak  or 
to  improve  social  conditions.  It  merely  puts 
them  where  they  belong  as  activities  of  faith  and 
protects  us  from  the  danger  of  making  them 
the  inspirers  of  faith. 

This  renewed  faith  will  affect  the  system  of 
thought  that  maintains  it;  it  requires  a  renewed 
emphasis  on  the  power  that  keeps  it  alive  and 
the  goal  of  life  it  seeks  to  attain.  It  finally 
requires  the  inspiration  of  the  living  Christ. 

These  are  the  things  we  will  consider  in  the 
chapters  that  follow. 


VII 

SPIRITUAL  ORTHODOXY 

OUR  investigations  in  the  preceding  chap- 
ters have  shown  that  the  Church  has 
failed  to  hold  its  young  men ;  the  denom- 
inational appeal  lacks  strength;  the  men  need 
and  want  a  practical  Christianity;  and  the 
spiritual  longing  of  men  needs  to  be  given  voice 
and  made  real.  We  have  dealt  with  spiritual 
aspirations  and  practical  forms  of  church  work. 
We  must  now  consider  the  intellectual  concepts 
that  are  needed  to  meet  these  problems.  In  the 
last  analysis  church  activities  are  always  deter- 
mined by  ideas  and  ideals. 

The  foundation  of  all  its  work  is  found  in  the 
Church's  definition  of  Orthodoxy.  The  ortho- 
dox things  are  the  things  that  are  considered  to 
be  in  accordance  with  the  teaching  and  purpose 
of  Christ.  Heterodox  opinions  are  those  that 
are  thought  to  be  in  opposition  to  Christ. 
Therefore  the  conception  of  orthodoxy  deter- 
mines what  things  should  be  worked  for  and 
the  methods  that  should  be  used. 

Orthodoxy  is  a  crystallisation  of  spiritual 

125 


126  On  to   Christ 


ideals  and  the  determining  factor  of  religious 
activities.  It  is  the  organisation  of  spiritual 
life  and  thought  in  accordance  with  some  set  of 
controlling  principles  that  establish  their  laws 
and  bring  them  into  orderly  relations  to  one 
another. 

There  is,  of  course,  a  right  kind  of  orthodoxy 
— and  there  is  also  the  wrong  kind.  To  many 
persons  orthodoxy  has  so  long  represented  in 
their  thoughts  the  stronghold  and  safeguard  of 
faith  that  it  is  hard  for  them  to  realise  it  can 
mean  anything  else.  Yet  there  is  a  form  of 
orthodoxy  which  is  a  spiritual  strait-jacket  for 
the  hampering  of  religious  activities  and  the 
hindering  of  spiritual  growth.  The  classical 
example  of  this  form  of  orthodoxy  is  found  in 
the  Pharisees  at  the  time  of  Christ.  In  the 
seventh  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John  we  have 
one  of  the  best  illustrations  of  its  destructive 
power.  Not  only  does  it  keep  the  Pharisees 
from  recognising  the  Christ  but  in  the  closing 
verses  of  that  chapter  we  see  them  rise  up  and 
condemn  one  of  their  own  members  who  merely 
asks  that  Christ  be  given  a  fair  trial. 

These  Pharisees  were  not  immoral  men. 
They  were  mostly  honest  and  sincere  men  who 
lived  according  to  the  standards  of  their  reli- 
gion. They  were  bound  by  established  customs 
and  did  not  have  the  spiritual  vision  necessary 


spiritual  Orthodoxy  127 

for  a  modification  of  their  religious  convictions 
on  the  lines  laid  down  by  the  new  revelation  of 
God  given  through  Christ.  They  tithed  their 
income  to  the  last  anise  and  cumin  seed  because 
the  law  required  it ;  they  omitted  the  weightier 
matters  of  mercy  and  faith  because  they  did  not 
realise  that  these  things  were  also  religious. 
They  were  careful  about  the  hours  of  prayer 
and  sacrifice  because  these  acts  were  their  duty 
to  God,  but  they  devoured  widows'  houses  be- 
cause ^* business  is  business."  They  had  no 
idea  that  a  man's  relation  to  his  fellow-men 
determined  his  relationship  to  God.  Religion 
was  religion,  and  business  was  business.  Reli- 
gion had  to  be  kept  holy.  It  was  not  permitted 
to  touch  ordinary  things.  Its  commandments 
revelled  in  the  washing  of  pots  and  pans  and 
ceremonial  ablutions.  It  protected  the  religious 
man  from  any  possible  contamination  by  its 
rules  for  individual  conduct. 

Christ  overthrew  this  whole  conception  of 
religion  by  his  personal  example.  He  took  His 
religion  into  the  market-place  and  street.  He 
practised  it  by  mingling  with  publicans  and  sin- 
ners. He  broke  do\vn  the  wall  of  partition 
between  the  secular  and  religious  and  the  Phari- 
sees feared  that  true  religion  would  be  lost. 
Christ's  conduct  appeared  to  the  Pharisees  to 
be  not  only  the  casting  of  pearls  before  swine 


128  On  to  Christ 


but,  even  worse  than  that,  the  denial  of  religion 
itself.  They  failed  to  realise  that  Christ's  aim 
was  to  spiritualise  life  and  all  its  relationships. 
They  had  tried  to  attain  holiness  by  the  way  of 
separation.  He  purposed  to  bring  holiness  to 
the  world  by  the  method  of  spiritual  transforma- 
tion. Their  conception  of  holiness  was  applied 
to  their  own  personal  lives  and  left  the  world 
just  as  bad  as  it  had  been  before.  Christ's  pur- 
pose was  to  save  the  world  from  its  sin  by  the 
power  of  a  holy  and  loving  God. 

This  wrong  conception  of  orthodoxy  is  not 
limited  to  the  Pharisees  at  the  time  of  Christ. 
It  is  a  type  of  mind  rather  than  a  school  of 
thought  that  exists  in  every  age.  It  is  an  exal- 
tation of  rules  and  definitions  because  of  their 
clearness  and  the  ease  with  which  they  can  be 
grasped  and  a  depreciation  of  a  spirit  because 
it  is  hard  to  define  and  has  to  be  practised  to  be 
understood. 

Many  sincere  people  today  believe  that  ortho- 
doxy means  nothing  more  than  an  intellectual 
belief  in  the  system  of  theology  taught  by  their 
own  faith  and  an  attendance  at  the  services  of 
their  own  church.  They  are  regularly  at  the 
hours  of  worship,  active  in  church  work,  and 
generous  with  their  gifts.  They  possess  the 
virtues  and  also  the  limitations  of  the  old-time 
Pharisee.    They  have  never  conceived  of  Chris- 


spiritual  Orthodoxy  129 

tianity  as  a  spirit  controlling  the  whole  of  life 
and  all  its  relationships.  Such  a  thought  is 
new  and,  therefore,  dangerous  and  to  be 
avoided. 

The  Orthodoxy  of  Stagnation 

This  kind  of  orthodoxy  has  three  outstand- 
ing characteristics.  It  is  the  orthodoxy  of  stag- 
nation. It  conceives  of  the  faith  as  something 
once  delivered  to  the  saints,  and  believes  that 
its  only  duty  is  to  protect  and  keep  that  faith. 
It  is  like  a  man  who  takes  a  barrel  of  spring 
water  and  determines  to  keep  it  for  its  purity. 
The  water  is  pure  and  living  when  he  first 
places  it  in  the  barrel.  But  separated  from  the 
sparkling  and  bubbling  spring  it  becomes  stag- 
nant, loses  its  purity,  and  turns  odorous  and 
miasmatic.  The  water  that  Christ  constantly 
refers  to  is  the  living  water — the  water  that  is 
ever  bubbling  up  and  always  flowing  forth. 

The  story  is  told  of  a  farmer's  daughter  who 
went  away  from  home  to  boarding-school.  At 
Christmas  time  she  returned  home  for  the  vaca- 
tion. She  complained  to  her  mother  that  the 
parlour  was  close  and  musty.  After  the  daugh- 
ter returned  to  school  the  mother  carefully 
cleaned  the  parlour,  dusted  the  furniture, 
washed  the  curtains,  and  scrubbed  the  wood- 


130  On  to  Christ 


work.  When  the  room  fairly  shone  in  its  clean- 
liness, the  loving  mother  carefully  closed  and 
bolted  the  windows  and  locked  the  doors.  In 
the  spring  when  the  daughter  returned  home 
she  again  complained  how  musty  the  parlour 
was.  The  mother  exclaimed,  ^^You  foolish 
child,  it  can't  be  close  and  musty,  for  right  after 
you  returned  to  school  the  room  was  carefully 
scrubbed  and  cleaned,  and  it  has  been  closed 
ever  since.''  The  mother  didn't  realise  that  it 
Wasn't  sufficient  to  clean  the  room  and  shut  it 
up.  It  needed  the  pure  air  and  bright  sunlight 
to  keep  it  fresh  and  sweet.  So  it  is  with  some 
men's  faith.  It  was  once  a  vital  part  of  their 
lives.  They  learned  their  catechism  and  they 
memorised  their  Bible  texts.  They  had  their 
faith,  and  they  thought  that  they  needed  only 
to  keep  it.  They  placed  it  in  their  lives  and 
closed  the  windows  and  doors  and  expected 
that  faith  to  keep  \ital  and  living.  Instead,  it 
became  musty  and  stale. 

The  Christian  faith  is  life,  and  as  a  life  it 
must  live  each  day.  Christ  came  to  fulfil  the 
law,  but  he  also  vitalised  and  spiritualised  it. 
You  cannot  fit  a  boy  who  is  both  strong  and 
lusty  at  eight  years  of  age  with  a  suit  of  clothes 
and  sew  them  on  him,  and  have  those  clothes 
still  fit  when  the  boy  reaches  maturity.  The 
boy  is  a  growing  life,  and  he  must  constantly 


spiritual  Orthodoxy  131 

be  clotliing  himself  in  new  apparel.  Christ 
Himself  told  us  that  you  cannot  take  the  old, 
dried,  cracked  leather  wine-skins  and  fill  them 
with  new  wine,  seething  with  life  and  bubbling 
with  power.  The  wine  is  bound  to  ferment  and 
the  dried  old  skins  cannot  yield.  They  have  no 
elasticity  because  they  are  old  and  dead.  The 
result  can  only  be  a  catastrophe  that  will  ruin 
the  skins  and  waste  the  wine.  And  still  many  a 
young  life,  bursting  with  vitality  and  filled  with 
spiritual  power,  is  being  forced  into  the  worn- 
out  skins  our  fathers  used,  and  the  skins  are 
breaking  and  the  lives  are  being  wasted. 

The  condition  of  the  men  of  our  country 
gives  point  to  this  illustration.  They  have  been 
developed  physically  and  mentally  by  their 
army  experience.  Their  spiritual  life  cannot 
be  contained  in  the  old  wine-skins.  They  look 
for  and  demand  a  faith  that  deals  with  live 
issues  and  not  with  mummies  a  thousand  years 
old.  If  Christianity  insists  on  confining  itself 
to  its  old  shibboleths  and  shuns  the  questions  of 
practical  life  the  men  will  leave  it  alone.  Christ 
burst  the  shackles  of  Phariseeism  and  the  world 
today  needs  to  have  its  old  conceptions  enlarge^ 
and  vitalised  by  the  spirit  of  God. 


132  On  to   Christ 


The  Orthodoxy  of  a  Half  Faith 

The  second  characteristic  of  this  form  of 
orthodoxy  is  its  half  faith.  It  has  faith  enough 
to  trust  God,  but  it  has  not  faith  enough  to 
trust  God  completely.  It  fears  the  scholar's 
research,  and  it  fears  the  growth  of  knowledge. 
I  can  have  no  sympathy  with  any  such  fears. 
My  faith  is  not  a  burden  that  I  must  carry,  but 
it  is  the  power  that  carries  me.  It  must  be 
elastic  enough  to  meet  the  truth  in  literature, 
in  art,  in  science,  and  in  language  fearlessly, 
and  still  be  strong  enough  to  control  my  whole 
life.  If  science  or  research  can  prove  it  false, 
the  sooner  I  know  it  the  better  it  is  for  me  and 
for  all  the  lives  I  touch.  I  do  not  want  to 
believe  or  teach  something  that  is  not  wholly 
true,  so  I  must  test  my  faith  by  the  fierce  fires 
of  truth  to  purify  it  and  make  it  strong. 

This  half  faith  passed  muster  in  the  years 
that  have  gone  by  because  the  world  was  living 
on  a  low  spiritual  level.  The  experiences  of  the 
last  four  years  have  changed  the  atmosphere  of 
life.  Many  men  have  had  to  deal  with  the  real- 
ity of  their  ideals  for  the  first  time  in  their 
lives.  Loyalty  means  more  than  merely  stand- 
ing while  the  Star-Spangled  Banner  is  played 
or  the  taking  off  your  hat  while  the  flag  passes. 


spiritual  Orthodoxy  133 

It  means  sacrifice  and  service.  Thousands  of 
men  have  given  their  lives  and  other  thousands 
have  sacrificed  their  business  at  the  call  of 
duty.  A  single  incident  that  happened  in  one 
of  the  cantonments  during  the  first  year  of  the 
war  illustrates  this  point. 

A  group  of  soldiers  was  gathered  around  the 
stove  of  a  Y.M.C.A.  Hut  on  a  bitter  winter's 
afternoon. 

*^Tony,  what  made  you  cry  so  much  when 
you  first  came  to  campT'  one  of  them  asked  a 
foreign-looking  fellow  who  had  just  joined  the 
group. 

Tony  answered  with  a  grunt. 

*^0h,  Tony,  tell  us  what  was  the  matter  with 
you  when  the  draft  caught  you,''  said  another 
of  the  group. 

They  kept  this  up  until  finally  Tony  told  his 
story. 

*'I  wuk  hard  an'  save  money,"  he  began  in 
broken  English.  **Bye  and  bye  I  buy  fine  fruit 
store.  My  free  brudders  help  me.  We  save 
money  an'  buy  annuder  fruit  store.  Two 
brudders  run  one  store.  Odder  brudder  help 
me  an'  me  run  odder  store.  We  do  fine  busi- 
ness an'  make  money.  De  war  come  long,  two 
brudders  enlist.  Tony  shut  up  one  store. 
Draft  come  long  and  take  Tony.  When  Feb- 
uer'  come  draft  take  odder  brudder.     Tony 


134  On  to  Christ 


bust.  Tony  cry  when  he  come  to  Army  ^cause 
he  lose  stores,  lose  money,  lose  everyding." 

He  paused  a  minute  while  the  crowd  was 
silent. 

**Well,  I  should  worra!  ''  he  continued; 
'^ Uncle  Sam  feed  Tony.'' 

He  did  not  complain.  He  did  not  denounce 
the  Government.  His  heart  had  been  sore  and 
his  warm  southern  nature  had  shown  his  grief 
in  tears.  Thousands  of  others  have  suffered 
the  same  loss  and  never  said  a  word.  Tony's 
story  would  not  have  been  known  if  it  had  not 
been  for  the  ^^ joshing"  he  received  about  his 
tears.  Such  experiences  make  men  instinc- 
tively recognize  genuineness.  Loyalty  to  their 
country  has  meant  courage  and  self-sacrifice. 
Loyalty  to  God  must  mean  a  courageous  faith 
or  they  will  have  none  of  it.  Their  army  ex- 
perience has  made  them  keen  judges  of  char- 
acter; if  their  religious  leaders  lack  open- 
mindedness  and  continue  to  advocate  a  half 
faith  these  men  will  renounce  their  leadership 
and  repudiate  Christianity. 

The  experiences  of  the  war  have  reached  a 
wider  circle  of  people  than  those  contained  in 
the  different  branches  of  the  service  in  another 
way.  The  accumulated  suffering  and  sorrow 
of  a  war-wracked  world  has  made  many  people 
long   for   a   more    definite    understanding   of 


spiritual  Orthodoxy  135 

eternity.  So  many  young  men  have  died  and 
so  many  others  have  had  physical  manhood 
wrecked  by  wounds,  that  a  great  host  of  people 
are  thinking  about  the  limitations  of  this  ma- 
terial existence,  and  they  long  for  an  assur- 
ance of  immortality.  To  meet  this  need  the 
Church  must  obtain  the  confidence  of  these 
people.  A  fear  of  science  creates  doubts  that 
no  words  can  allay.  The  Church  must  win  the 
respect  of  people's  intellect  by  its  fearless  love 
of  truth  to  give  them  confidence  in  its  promises 
of  the  future. 

This  orthodoxy  of  a  half  faith  has  always  been 
strong  enough  to  trust  God  for  spiritual  things. 
It  believes  that  He  can  save  the  soul,  and  no 
one  can  prove  the  contrary  because  this  is  a 
mystical  conception  that  can  be  proved  only 
in  a  future  life.  It  is  very  severe  and  all  pow- 
erful in  dealing  with  the  ethics  of  the  individ- 
ual. It  insists  on  honesty,  chastity,  and  so- 
briety for  all  men.  It  is  positive  in  a  negative 
way.  It  is  strong  in  its  **Thou  shalt  not"  and 
weak  in  its  constructive  elements.  It  defines 
the  Christian  life  in  terms  of  the  things  that 
must  not  be  done.  It  prohibits  the  use  of  to- 
bacco, card-playing,  theatre-going,  and  danc- 
ing. It  forgets  that  most  of  these  things  are 
not  wrong  in  themselves  but  only  wrong  when 
improperly  used.    Many  of  the  chaplains  who 


136  On  to  Christ 


studied  the  soldiers  in  the  trenches  complain 
of  the  wrong  conception  of  Christianity  that 
has  heen  created  by  this  negative  emphasis. 

Much  as  it  is  to  be  regretted,  honesty  re- 
quires us  to  admit  that  right  here  the  positive 
character  of  this  static  orthodoxy  ceases.  We 
need  a  theology  of  positive  statements. 

A  recent  study  of  the  men  in  the  Y.M.C.A. 
Huts  showed  that  they  considered  that  the 
three  cardinal  sins  are,  first,  cowardice,  then 
selfishness,  and  finally  conceit.  What  has  the 
Church  to  say  to  this  spirit!  The  opposites 
of  cowardice,  selfishness,  and  conceit  are  cour- 
age, unselfishness,  and  humility.  These  are 
three  fundamental  virtues  of  the  Christianity 
of  Christ.  A  positive  statement  of  these  vir- 
tues must  be  made  to  command  the  respect  and 
allegiance  of  the  manhood  of  the  world. 

This  need  of  a  positive  theology  is  seen  in 
another  connection.  Wlien  the  static  theology 
deals  with  the  complicated  problems  of  social 
evils  due  to  our  methods  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution they  are  called  politics,  and  Christ's 
Kingdom  which  He  came  to  proclaim  and  which 
He  gave  His  life  for,  loses  its  power  and  be- 
comes a  mere  dream.  It  has  not  the  faith  to 
accept  Christ's  message  in  its  entirety  and 
bring  the  new  Jerusalem  to  this  earth. 

If  the  Church  believes  that  Christ  meant  any- 


spiritual  Orthodoxy  137 

thing  by  teaching  them  to  pray  ^ '  Thy  Kingdom 
come,  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth,'*  she  ought 
to  strive  to  see  that  this  is  done.  The  question 
of  wages  and  working  conditions  are  moral 
questions.  They  deal  with  a  man's  life  and  his 
ability  to  provide  for  his  family.  The  labour 
question  is  a  difficult  and  delicate  one.  The  old 
type  of  orthodoxy  dodged  the  issue  by  saying 
it  was  not  a  religious  question.  It  permitted 
the  Pharisee  to  grind  the  face  of  the  poor  and 
then  right  himself  with  God  by  paying  his  tithe 
into  the  Temple  treasury.  The  hypocrisy  of 
any  such  conduct  will  be  quickly  discovered  by 
men  who  have  had  their  conscience  awakened 
through  their  recent  experiences,  and  any 
Church  that  fears  to  apply  the  doctrines  of 
righteousness  and  justice  to  its  members  will 
be  unable  to  hold  these  men. 

Chaplains  and  Y.M.C.A.  workers  found  that 
their  religious  backgrounds  meant  little  or 
nothing  to  the  men  in  the  ranks.  They  looked 
for  personality.  When  they  found  a  spiritual 
personality  they  respected,  they  responded  to 
it.  This  type  of  personality  bore  the  stamp 
of  genuineness.  You  cannot  be  genuine  if  you 
are  afraid  that  your  faith  cannot  stand  the  test 
of  truth. 


138  On  to  Christ 


The  Orthodoxy  of  Dogmatism 

The  third  characteristic  of  this  wrong  form 
of  orthodoxy  is  its  dogmatism.  The  Pharisees 
had  no  doubts,  they  had  no  qualms,  they  had 
no  uncertainties  in  dealing  with  Christ.  They 
had  the  law  of  Moses;  Christ's  teaching  dif- 
fered from  their  conception  of  this  law,  there- 
fore He  was  wrong.  It  was  just  as  simple  as 
ABC.  They  had  the  rule,  and  the  rule  began 
and  ended  the  matter. 

This  type  of  theology  is  always  sophomoric 
in  its  conception  of  life.  It  is  arbitrary  in  its 
statements,  it  is  absolute  in  its  convictions,  and 
it  forgets  that  ^ '  They  see  not  clearest  who  see 
all  things  clear.''  Real  knowledge,  in  all  its 
forms,  realises  its  own  limitations  and  never 
fails  to  appreciate  that  truth  is  larger  than  the 
mind  of  any  man.  It  is  indistinct  and  unde- 
finable  in  many  vital  spots,  because  it  is  the 
truth  and  as  yet  we  can  only  see  through  a 
glass  darkly.  These  three  elements — stagna- 
tion, half  faith,  and  dogmatism — caused  the 
Pharisees  to  reject  Christ  and  crucify  Him. 
These  three  elements,  whenever  they  reappear, 
limit  and  hurt  the  Church  and  block  the  way 
of  Christ's  Kingdom.    It  is  the  orthodoxy  of 


spiritual  Orthodoxy  139 

the  letter.    There  is  a  true  orthodoxy,  but  it  is 
the  orthodoxy  of  the  spirit. 

The  Orthodoxy  of  the  Spirit 

This  orthodoxy  of  the  spirit  has  its  roots 
reaching  far  down  into  the  past.  They  reach 
into  the  lives  of  John  Knox  and  John  Calvin; 
they  are  nourished  by  the  teaching  of  St.  Au- 
gustine and  the  spirit  of  Thomas  a  Kempis; 
they  reach  deep  into  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ, 
drawing  strength  from  His  life  and  teachings, 
from  His  sacrificial  death  and  resurrection. 
They  do  not  stop  even  here.  They  touch  the 
lives  of  the  great  prophets,  Amos,  Isaiah,  and 
Jeremiah,  with  their  gospel  of  social  righteous- 
ness. They  draw  strength  from  Hosea  and  his 
gospel  of  redeeming  love.  They  go  into  the 
personal  experiences  of  the  Psalmist  who  sang, 
**I  will  lift  up  my  eyes  unto  the  hills,''  and 
^*The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd."  They  go  still 
deeper  into  the  very  beginnings  of  Israel 's  his- 
tory and  draw  strength  from  that  man  of  faith, 
Abraham,  who  went  out  from  his  home  not 
knowing  whither  he  went,  but  trusting  in  God. 
This  is  all  true,  and  eternally  true,  but  these 
are  only  the  roots.  The  Tree  of  Faith  has  her 
roots  in  the  past,  but  her  flowers  and  fruit  are 
in  the  future.    Christ  was  more  interested,  as 


140  On  to   Christ 


every  good  husbandman  is,  in  the  flowers  and 
fruit  than  in  the  roots.  The  climax  and  crown 
of  all  orthodoxy  is  not  measured  by  its  loyalty 
to  its  roots  but  by  its  reaching  forth  into  the 
future  and  attaining  the  flowers  and  fruit  that 
Christ  seeks.  It  is  true  that  every  tree  that  is 
cut  o:ff  from  its  roots  dies;  but  it  is  equally 
true  that  every  tree  that  fails  to  attain  its 
flowers  and  fruit  never  lives.  You  must  have 
loyalty  to  the  past  and  also  a  growing  life  that 
is  reaching  out  into  the  future. 

The  orthodoxy  of  the  spirit  is  not  dogmatic 
in  its  statement.  It  recognises  that  the  creeds 
of  Christendom  summed  up  the  spiritual  ex- 
periences and  the  beliefs  of  their  authors.  They 
are  the  great  landmarks  of  faith.  They  should 
be  honoured  and  venerated  as  the  interpreters 
of  Christianity.  They  are  not  and  cannot  be 
final  statements  of  religious  experience.  Lan- 
guage is  used  as  the  medium  in  which  the 
religious  experiences  of  the  Fathers  are  ex- 
pressed. Every  student  knows  that  no  lan- 
guage remains  static.  Words  change  their 
meaning.  Some  words  are  enlarged  to  mean 
more  than  they  did  a  hundred  years  ago,  and 
others  are  contracted  to  mean  a  specific  thing 
instead  of  continuing  to  mean  a  whole  class  of 
experiences. 

Life  and  thought  do  not  remain  the  same. 


spiritual  Orthodoxy  141 

The  knowledge  of  science  has  increased  a  hun- 
dredfold in  the  past  century.  The  laws  of 
nature  are  no  longer  hidden  from  our  eyes. 
We  know  more  about  the  marvellous  organisa- 
tion and  interrelationship  of  all  material 
things  than  our  fathers  did.  These  things  are 
bound  to  affect  spiritual  conceptions.  We  must 
honestly  recognise  this  change  and  define 
orthodoxy  in  the  light  of  these  changes. 

The  orthodoxy  of  the  spirit  is  broad  in  its 
sympathy.  It  recognises  that  God  is  a  spirit 
and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship  Him 
in  spirit  and  in  truth.  It  does  not  expect  or 
try  to  make  all  men  accept  the  same  definitions 
or  express  themselves  in  the  language  of  a 
former  age.  It  demands  that  they  are  true  to 
God  as  He  is  revealed  in  Christ.  It  expects 
them  to  show  an  absolute  loyalty  to  the  spirit 
and  teachings  of  Christ.  It  recognises  that 
men  are  temperamentally  different,  but  it  de- 
mands of  all  the  spiritual  loyalty  to  God  that 
reveals  itself  in  right  relations  with  all  men 
and  a  due  regard  to  the  spiritual  things  Christ 
revealed.  This  is  more  than  a  cold  morality. 
It  is  morality  made  vital  and  spiritual  by  the 
touch  of  God. 

Professor  Giddings  in  his  works  on  sociology 
finds  the  foundation  of  human  society  in  that 
mental  quality  which  he  calls  the  **  conscious- 


142  Ow  to   Christ 


ness  of  kind.''  If  we  can  develop  a  *' conscious- 
ness of  kind"  which  finds  itself  in  the  spiritual 
experience,  the  accomplishments  and  inspira- 
tion of  Christ,  we  shall  cease  to  rest  on  an  un- 
alterable fixity  of  mind  as  the  essential  ortho- 
doxy. The  Church  that  becomes  stereotyped 
dies.  You  have  only  to  look  at  the  orthodox 
Greek  Church  and  the  absolute  orthodoxy  of 
Spain  to  see  the  fruit  of  the  wrong  kind  of 
orthodoxy.  We  need  the  stimulus  of  different 
opinions.  We  have  friends  who  are  almost  re- 
actionary in  their  theology  and  other  friends 
who  are  radical  in  their  beliefs.  They  are  both 
wrong.  Our  own  comdctions  are  the  truth  to 
us.  These  differences  should  not  and  in  this 
case  do  not  mar  or  limit  the  ties  of  friendship, 
or  prevent  the  closest  kind  of  cooperation  in 
all  sorts  of  spiritual  work.  The  play  of  mind 
on  mind  and  faith  on  faith  teaches  every  sin- 
cere seeker  of  the  truth  that  his  own  mind  and 
faith  and  intellect  itself  camiot  contain  the 
whole  truth. 

This  is  the  kind  of  orthodoxy  that  the  world 
needs  today.  This  is  the  kind  of  foundation 
that  will  keep  the  Church  true  to  Christ  and 
still  open  her  doors  to  the  men  of  the  New  Era. 
This  is  the  spirit  that  welcomes  all  progress 
because  it  is  reaching  towards  the  future.  This 
is  the  faith  that  grows  with  every  new  experi- 


spiritual  Orthodoxy  143 

ence  and  interprets  them  as  new  manifestations 
of  God.  It  is  not  easily  catalogued  or  defined. 
You  cannot  always  label  its  component  parts. 
It  may  lack  definition  of  details.  This  may  all 
be  true,  and  yet  this  is  the  true  orthodoxy. 
True  orthodoxy  is  a  spirit  and  not  a  set  of 
definitions. 

It  is  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  is  as  broad  as 
the  love  of  God.  It  is  the  creator  of  person- 
ality and  true  piety.  It  is  zealous  for  all  things 
that  help  men.  It  is  active  in  all  walks  of  life. 
It  is  founded  on  a  realisation  of  man's  limita- 
tions and  a  recognition  of  Christ's  sufficiency. 
This  is  the  only  spirit  that  can  help  the  Church 
of  today.  Our  problems  are  all  practical  prob- 
lems and  our  need  is  immediate.  On  this 
foundation  the  Church  can  be  true  to  herself, 
faithful  to  her  Master  and  the  spiritual  power 
of  the  future  age. 


vni 

THE   POWER   OF   PRAYER 

A  S  we  enter  the  New  Era  amid  the  wastage 
/-\  of  war  and  the  babel  of  tongues  pro- 
claiming panaceas  for  every  human  ill, 
it  is  good  for  our  souls  to  pause  a  moment  and 
take  account  of  stock.  Wliat  does  the  Church 
possess  that  gives  us  confidence  in  her  ability 
to  guide  and  direct  the  thought  of  men  at  this 
time? 

The  answer  is  not  found  in  her  material  pos- 
sessions, although  they  be  great.  The  scholar- 
ship of  her  ministers,  which  is  above  question, 
does  not  give  us  any  feeling  of  assurance. 

The  culture  and  sincerity  of  her  membership 
does  not  answer  our  need. 

The  strength  of  the  Church  is  her  spiritual 
power.  The  world  needs  God,  and  the  Church 
must  bring  the  power  of  God  into  the  daily 
problems  of  life. 

Prayer  is  our  Power  with  God.  Prayer  is 
the  supreme  need  of  the  world  today. 

If  people  only  realised  what  this  means  they 
would  storm  the  citadel  of  heaven  with  their 
petitions. 

144 


The  Power  of  Prayer  145 

Christ  tried  to  teach  His  disciples  over  two 
thousand  years  ago  the  power  they  possessed 
in  prayer,  but  they  were  slow  of  comprehension 
and  dull  of  hearing.  They  failed  to  realise  the 
significance  of  His  repeated  exhortations.  His 
lessons  were  clear  and  His  meaning  plain,  but 
many  of  His  followers  have  failed  to  under- 
stand His  words. 

In  all  His  teaching  and  habit  of  life  His  one 
primary  object  was  to  teach  men  to  pray. 

He  founded  His  Church  in  prayer.  We  see 
Him  time  and  time  again  seeking  some  quiet 
spot  where  He  might  have  unbroken  com- 
munion with  God.  It  is  either  the  mountain 
top  in  the  early  morning  hours  before  the  sun 
arises  or  it  is  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  but  always  and  ever  we 
catch  glimpses  of  the  Master  building  His 
Church  at  the  throne  of  God.  He  never  let  His 
time  become  so  filled  with  teaching  and  preach- 
ing, healing  and  comforting,  that  God  was 
crowded  out.  He  gave  His  Church  a  prayer  in- 
stead of  a  Creed.  If  the  early  Church  had  only 
caught  the  significance  of  this  act  she  would 
have  saved  the  world  a  lot  of  sorrow  and 
trouble.  If  the  Church  had  great  saints  instead 
of  great  apologists  she  would  have  reached  the 
world  much  faster  than  she  did.  If  the  Church 
had  men  mighty  with  God  in  prayer  instead  of 


146  On  to  Christ 


mighty  in  argument  with  men,  she  would  have 
established  Christ's  Engdom  on  earth  before 
this. 

The  trouble  is  not  with  God,  the  trouble  is 
with  men.  Prayer  is  too  mystical  to  appeal  to 
either  the  practical  or  the  intellectual  man. 
The  practical  man  wants  to  do  something.  The 
intellectual  man  wants  to  analyse  and  explain 
something.  God  wants  all  men  to  pray  and 
pray  without  ceasing. 

Christ  observed  this  in  one  of  His  most  strik- 
ing parables  where  He  told  how  the  importunate 
prayers  of  a  poor  mdow  won  justice  from  an 
unjust  judge.  He  closes  this  parable  with  the 
question,  ''Shall  not  God  avenge  His  own  elect, 
which  cry  day  and  night  unto  Him  though  He 
bear  long  with  themT'  No  theological  treaties 
or  philosophical  essay  could  show  the  power  of 
prayer  as  clearly  as  this  little  story  \vith  its 
striking  conclusion.  The  last  sentence  sends  the 
message  home  to  every  heart.  It  is  the  Master's 
call  to  persistent  prayer. 

The  Apostle  Paul  caught  the  purpose  and 
spirit  of  Christ.  Exhortations  to  prayer  fill 
his  Epistles.  He  is  constantly  trying  to  teach 
the  new  converts  to  the  faith  their  need  of  rely- 
ing on  God  for  help.  He  is  constantly  slipping 
into  prayer  as  he  writes  his  letters.  He  slips 
into  prayer  because  he  cannot  help  it.    It  is  the 


The  Power  of  Prayer  147 

habit  of  his  mind.  It  is  the  way  he  faces  every 
difficulty  and  settles  every  problem.  He  could 
no  more  help  praying  in  prison  than  he  could 
help  breathing.  The  one  was  just  as  natural  for 
his  spiritual  nature  as  the  other  was  for  his 
physical  nature.  His  words  to  the  Church  at 
Thessalonica  were  his  words  to  the  whole 
Church — ' '  Pray  without  ceasing. ' '  This  exhor- 
tation was  borne  of  his  own  practice  and  the 
fruit  of  his  own  experience. 

All  that  has  been  said  about  Christ  and  the 
Apostle  Paul  will  be  readily  admitted. 

The  question  immediately  arises,  *^How  can 
prayer  help  the  world  today? 

Prayer  is  a  mystery,  but  experience  proves  it 
is  the  one  thing  that  helps  a  lot.  The  best 
physicians  often  use  remedies  that  they  cannot 
explain  or  even  understand.  Experience  has 
proven  these  remedies  to  be  beneficial  in  cer- 
tain cases.  The  physician  desires  to  heal  his 
patient.  He  therefore  uses  the  remedy  he  does 
not  understand  because  he  has  seen  its  previous 
results.  He  usually  attains  the  result  he  ex- 
pects and  is  satisfied  even  in  his  limited  knowl- 
edge to  go  on  using  such  a  remedy  because  it  is 
the  best  thing  he  knows  about. 

Is  it  any  less  reasonable  for  Christians  to  use 
prayer  simply  because  it  works  in  a  mysterious 
way? 


148  On  to   Christ 


While  we  realise  that  we  cannot  analyse  the 
power  of  prayer  or  tabulate  its  answers,  be- 
cause such  efforts  are  apt  to  degenerate  into 
absurdities  or  to  border  on  sacrilege,  there  are 
some  things  we  can  understand  about  it,  and 
these  things  are  worthy  of  our  consideration 
because  they  help  us  to  cultivate  the  habit  of 
prayer,  and  that  is  what  God  wants  us  to  do. 

Prayer  helps  the  one  that  prays.  It  is  not 
easy  to  pray.  We  have  to  learn  how.  It  is  like 
learning  to  talk  in  a  strange  language.  At  first 
it  is  hard  to  make  ourselves  understood.  Profi- 
ciency only  comes  by  practice.  When  we  have 
learned  to  pray  we  find  that  prayer  brings  us 
in  touch  with  the  mind  of  God.  To  the  man  that 
has  never  learned  to  pray  this  may  sound  like 
Yiddish.  To  the  soul  who  has  rested  on  God  in 
hours  of  conflict  or  sorrow  it  is  a  plain  state- 
ment of  fact.  Sorrows  surge  around  and  pain 
increases,  but  the  soul  in  touch  with  God  has 
peace.  This  is  one  reason  why  we  should  pray 
now.  We  need  to  feel  the  mind  and  heart  of 
God  to  keep  brave  and  sane. 

Prayer  helps  the  connnunity  that  contains 
people  that  pray.  Students  tell  us  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  the  social  mind.  This  is  the 
mental  atmosphere  that  pervades  a  community. 
It  springs  from  the  action  of  different  minds 
working  together  and  influencing  one  another. 


The  Power  of  Prayer  149 

The  community  that  is  filled  with  praying  people 
is  sure  to  be  better  balanced  mentally  than  a 
community  that  is  swept  by  every  wind  of  pas- 
sion or  sentiment.  Prayer  acts  in  such  a  com- 
munity as  ballast  in  a  ship.  It  steadies  it  in 
time  of  storm  and  resists  the  shock  of  the 
waves. 

This  is  merely  saying  that  prayer  is  the  great 
builder  of  national  morale,  and  morale  is  an 
essential  element  in  keeping  a  nation  sane  in 
time  of  social  upheavals  like  the  present.  The 
nation  that  prays  will  continue  strong,  while 
the  nation  that  neglects  prayer  will  lose  its 
balance  and  drift  into  excesses  that  will 
ruin  it. 

Prayer  helps  the  ones  prayed  for. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  prayer  works. 
It  works  directly,  and  its  winged  petition  car- 
ries a  blessing  just  as  surely  as  the  wireless 
telegraph  carries  a  message.  This  is  a  mystery, 
and  the  analysis  of  a  divine  mystery  is  apt  to 
be  an  absurdity.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know 
that  our  petition  to  God  sends  a  blessing  to  the 
one  we  love  in  a  distant  country  or  on  the  sea 
just  as  surely  as  the  Marconi  telegraph  will 
send  them  a  message.  The  average  man  who 
sends  a  wireless  understands  no  more  about 
the  method  of  sending  his  message  than  the 
Christian  does  about  the  mechanics  of  praying. 


150  On  to   Christ 


It  works — that  is  the  main  thing  that  interests 
them. 

Prayer  helps  the  one  prayed  for  indirectly. 
No  one  knows  just  how  it  works,  but  we  all  know 
that  a  praying  mother  is  a  better  safeguard 
against  sin  than  all  the  lectures  on  social 
hygiene  that  were  ever  given.  We  believe  with 
all  our  hearts  in  this  educational  work.  We 
only  believe  a  little  more  in  a  mother's  prayer. 

Prayer  not  only  helps  the  individuals  we  pray 
for,  it  helps  the  cause. 

If  the  whole  Church  of  God  is  united  in 
prayer  for  a  righteous  and  just  solution  of  our 
social  problems,  their  prayers  create  a  spirit 
that  prepares  the  way  for  its  attainment.  The 
morale  of  the  nation  is  stimulated  and  the 
tendency  to  compromise  with  entrenched  evils 
is  curbed.  The  idealism  and  self-sacrifice  that 
have  been  developed  in  time  of  war  must  be 
conserved  to  solve  the  problems  of  peace. 
Prayer  is  the  conserving  force  that  keeps  this 
spirit  alive. 

Prayer  helps  God. 

The  profoundest  truth  of  all  is  that  our  pray- 
ers help  God.  The  mystery  of  it  is  beyond  our 
knowledge.  The  righteous,  just,  and  holy  God 
needs  our  prayers  to  complete  His  work  on 
earth.  There  is  no  other  explanation  for  the 
often  repeated  exhortations  to  pray. 


The  Power  of  Prayer  i^i 

God  needs  our  prayers.  By  this  means  we 
create  the  human  implements  through  which 
God  works.  God  might  create  a  peculiar  being 
to  do  His  work  on  earth,  but  He  does  it.  He 
takes  men  who  have  learned  to  pray  and  uses 
them.  He  may  sometimes  call  a  man  who  has 
the  potentialities  of  prayer  to  be  His  servant 
even  as  He  called  Saul  of  Tarsus.  They  are  in 
every  case  perfected  by  prayer.  This  is  the 
way  they  learn  God^s  will.  This  is  the  way  they 
gain  God's  strength.  They  are  the  prophets, 
saints,  and  seers  of  God,  and  the  secret  of  their 
power  is  found  in  their  prayers.  They  are 
God's  instruments  on  earth. 

Our  prayers  can  keep  the  power  of  God  active 
in  these  trying  days  of  reconstruction.  The 
solution  that  comes  from  God  is  the  only  solu- 
tion that  can  solve  the  world's  problem. 

No  nation  is  a  law  unto  itself.  There  are 
principles  of  righteousness  written  in  God's 
character.  The  nation  that  breaks  the  law  of 
God  has  sinned.  Desires  of  national  ambition 
and  military  necessities  cannot  revoke  God's 
laws  of  integrity,  justice,  and  honour.  These 
laws  are  written  in  God's  character.  The  na- 
tion that  outrages  them  is  rebelling  against 
God.  We  must  strive  to  write  the  laws  of  God 
into  our  national  and  international  life. 
Prayer  helps  God  to  help  us  in  this  effort. 


152  On  to   Christ 


Woe  be  it  unto  ns  and  our  children  if  the 
present  critical  unrest  degenerate  into  a  mere 
struggle  of  greed  between  the  different  classes 
of  society.  Temptations  are  bound  to  assail  the 
Church  at  this  time.  We  can  only  conquer  them 
by  keeping  close  to  God.  Prayer  keeps  us  close 
to  God.  God  is  on  the  side  of  righteousness, 
and  that  is  where  we  want  to  be. 

The  Danger  of  Half  Prayers 

There  is  one  danger  in  praying  that  Chris- 
tians have  to  constantly  guard  against.  This  is 
the  danger  of  trying  to  limit  God  with  our  own 
ignorance.  It  is  the  tendency  to  let  our  own 
judgments  determine  the  limits  within  which  we 
expect  God  to  work.  We  will  call  this  weakness 
the  danger  of  praying  half  prayers. 

We  have  a  most  interesting  illustration  of 
this  weakness  in  Acts  1 :  24.  The  disciples  are 
interested  in  finding  a  successor  to  take  the 
place  of  Judas  Iscariot  among  the  apostles. 
They  are  deeply  in  earnest  and  absolutely  con- 
scientious. They  want  God's  Avill  done.  But 
listen  to  their  prayer,  ^  ^  Thou,  Lord,  who  know- 
est  the  hearts  of  all  men,  shew  whether  of 
these  two  thou  hast  chosen.''  They  wanted 
God  to  choose  for  them  an  apostle,  but  they 
limited  God  to  the  names  of  two  men  who 


The  Power  of  Prayer  153 

commended  themselves  to  their  own  good 
judgment.  They  prayed  to  God  and  asked 
him  to  decide  between  Joseph  and  Matthias. 
They  prayed  the  prayer  of  ^* either — or."  It 
was  a  half  prayer  of  godly  men,  but  it  was 
only  a  half  prayer  because  it  was  a  limited 
prayer.  What  they  wanted  was  God's  apostle. 
They  made  their  mistake  by  limiting  God  by 
their  qualifying  clause,  *^of  these  two.'' 

There  is  no  doubt  that  both  Joseph  and  Mat- 
thias were  godly  men,  but  from  their  future 
relationship  to  the  apostles  they  were  what  we 
should  call  colourless  men.  They  seem  to  have 
lacked  initiative,  aggressiveness,  and  leader- 
ship. The  apostles  wanted  a  leader,  they 
wanted  a  man  thoroughly  educated,  of  keen 
mind  and  aggressive  spirit. 

It  is  possible  if  we  could  have  been  present 
at  that  time  and  asked  the  apostles  if  they  knew 
such  a  man  that  they  would  have  answered, 
**Yes,  there  is  such  a  man  but  unfortunately  he 
is  an  impossibility.  Saul  of  Tarsus,  trained  at 
the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  a  Pharisee  of  the  Pharisees, 
a  leader  of  the  orthodox,  and  a  man  aggressive 
in  spirit  is  just  the  kind  of  man  we  need.  But 
unfortunately  he  is  an  impossibility,  as  he  is  an 
enemy  of  Christ  and  the  worst  opponent  of  the 
Church."  On  further  questioning  they  might 
have  admitted  that  both  Joseph  and  Matthias 


154  On  to  Christ 


lacked  many  of  the  elements  that  they  felt  essen- 
tial for  the  apostleship,  and  still  they  were  will- 
ing to  let  their  ignorance  limit  their  judginent 
and  they  had  only  faith  enough  to  ask  God  to 
choose  *^of  these  two." 

God  answered  their  prayer  of  ^* either — or" 
by  saying  '* neither — nor — but."  God's  choice 
wasn't  Joseph  nor  Matthias  but  Saul  of  Tarsus, 
the  Apostle  Paul.  He  was  chosen  not  of  man 
but  of  God. 

The  scoffer  and  the  critic  might  have  sneered 
at  the  prayer  of  the  disciples  in  Jerusalem  and 
said,  *'See  their  prayer  is  not  answered." 
The  child  of  God  realises  that  the  spirit  of  their 
prayer  and  the  desire  of  their  souls  was  truly 
answered  by  a  loving  Father.  He  reached  over 
and  beyond  the  limitations  of  their  *^  either — 
or"  and  answered  in  living  but  unmistakable 
terms  *^ neither  Joseph  nor  Matthias,  but  Saul." 

Many  of  our  prayers  are  limited  by  our  igno- 
rance, we  pray  the  prayer  of  ** either — or." 
Our  real  wish  is  for  God's  purpose  to  be  worked 
out  in  our  lives  and  in  the  world  about  us,  and 
when  God  answers  *^ neither  this,  nor  that,  but 
this  better  thing,"  we  see  the  answer  to  our 
prayer. 

The  world  fails  to  realise  that  prayer  is  a 
spiritual  exercise  which  receives  a  spiritual 
answer.    When  Christ  said  unto  His  disciples. 


The  Power  of  Prayer  155 

*^  Ask  and  it  shall  be  given  you,  seek  and  ye  shall 
find,  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you," 
He  was  speaking  of  the  spiritual  life.  He  that 
asks  for  the  Spirit  of  Christ  receives  it.  Every 
one  that  seeks  his  heavenly  Father  shall  find 
Him.  No  knock  is  so  faint  but  it  opens  the  door 
of  His  presence.  Even  the  half  prayer  receives 
a  full  answer.  The  irreligious  man  and  the 
scientist  may  fail  to  see  it  and  be  unable  to 
tabulate  its  results  because  the  half  prayer  has 
limited  God  by  its  *' either — or"  and  God 
answers  ** neither — nor — ^but."  That  **but"  is 
something  better  than  the  mind  of  man  has  con- 
ceived of  as  a  possibility.  The  heart  of  faith 
recognises  the  hand  of  a  loving  Father  and 
knows  His  answer.  Every  true  prayer  even  if 
it  is  only  a  half  prayer  is  the  expression  of  a 
spiritual  aspiration  and  receives  a  spiritual 
answer. 

The  only  answer  to  the  problems  of  the  New 
Era  is  a  spiritual  one  as  all  its  problems  are 
fundamentally  spiritual. 

The  world  of  the  New  Era  needs  the  spirit 
of  prayer;  the  spirit  that  believes  in  God  and 
seeks  above  all  things  to  have  His  will  done  on 
earth.  This  is  the  solution  that  Christianity 
offers  to  all  our  problems.  This  is  God's  way, 
and  there  is  no  better  one. 


IX 

PRACTICAL   IMMORTALITY 

THE  Church  has  failed  in  recent  years  to 
emphasise  as  she  should  the  Christian's 
confidence  in  a  future  life.  The  world 
today  longs  for  this  assurance.  This  is  shown 
in  the  number  of  books  that  are  being  published 
on  spiritualism.  Some  of  them  are  written  by 
men  that  command  attention,  such  as  Sir 
Oliver  Lodge  and  Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle.  They 
are  written  from  hearts  that  have  been  bruised 
by  sorrow,  and  they  show  the  spiritual  interests 
of  their  authors.  If  it  were  not  for  the  authors' 
standing  and  spirit  some  of  their  statements 
would  be  ludicrous.  Take,  for  example,  the 
celestial  cigar  enjoyed  by  Raymond's  friend  in 
the  spirit  world  which  was  made  of  ether  and 
such  things.  Can  any  man  addicted  to  the  habit 
of  smoking  find  any  comfort  in  such  a  cigar  I 
A  cigar  to  be  a  real  comfort  must  be  of  the 
Havana  variety.  Only  boys  in  their  teens  find 
enjoyment  in  water  lily  stems,  comsilk,  and 
such  substitutes.  Hungry  souls  are  reading 
these  books  in  search  of  help. 

156 


Practical  Immortality  157 

What  has  the  Gospel  of  Christ  to  say  in 
answer  to  this  longing? 

It  has  a  message  that  rings  out  like  a  clarion 
trumpet. 

Heirs  of  Immortality ! 

How  that  thought  should  grip  our  souls. 

Too  long  has  the  Church  rested  in  the  shadow 
of  a  distant  hope.  It  should  be  working  in  the 
light  of  eternal  day. 

We  have  used  the  doctrine  of  immortality  as 
old  ladies  use  lavender.  It  is  something  that 
gives  a  refined  scent  to  their  linen  and  old  lace. 
Its  perfume  reminds  us  of  the  sacred  guest 
chamber. 

This  is  an  absolutely  wrong  idea  of  immor- 
tality. It  should  be  the  ozone  of  life.  Instead 
of  making  us  think  of  refinement  and  old  age  it 
should  make  our  blood  tingle  and  give  us  a  feel- 
ing of  spiritual  exhilaration  like  the  exhilara- 
tion that  comes  from  standing  on  the  bow  of  a 
ship  as  she  cuts  her  way  through  the  waves  and 
the  salt  breeze  stirs  the  blood  and  makes  the 
heart  rejoice  in  physical  life. 

Christ's  Message 

Christ  taught  His  disciples  that  immortality 
was  the  real  key  to  the  mystery  of  living.  He 
put  this  truth  in  the  dynamic  words  '^He  that 


1^8  On  to   Christ 


findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  loseth 
his  life  shall  find  it."  This  epigram  compels 
attention  by  its  wording.  At  first  sight  it  ap- 
pears to  be  a  contradiction  of  terms,  but  it 
contains  a  message  that  experience  proves  to 
be  the  truth. 

The  man  who  tries  to  fill  his  life  with  living 
shortly  has  to  face  the  ennui  of  life.  Pleasures 
lose  their  attraction.  Indulgence  brings  surfeit. 
Christ  told  His  disciples  that  only  by  losing 
their  life,  by  losing  the  desire  to  satisfy  life 
with  living,  could  they  find  real  abundant  life. 
A  thousand  thousand  witnesses  arise  to  prove 
the  truth  of  His  words.  Ennui  never  threatens 
the  man  who  is  living  in  the  light  of  immor- 
tality. He  finds  the  fulness  of  life  in  losing  his 
life  in  service  for  others.  He  is  satisfied  in 
spending  himself  and  being  spent  because  he 
knows  that  this  life  is  not  all.  It  is  only  the 
beginning  of  life.  It  is  the  preparation  for  the 
spiritual  life  which  is  eternal. 

PauVs  Use  of  Immortality 

Paul  realised  the  supreme  importance  and  the 
practical  nature  of  immortality  when  he  said  to 
the  church  at  Corinth,  *'If  Christ  be  not  risen, 
then  is  our  preaching  in  vain  and  your  faith  is 
also  vain.''    I  can  imagine  the  sensation  that 


Practical  Immortality  159 

would  have  been  caused  in  some  of  our  cultured 
and  refined  churches  if  a  pastor  had  made  such 
a  blunt  statement  five  years  ago.  The  congre- 
gation would  have  felt  as  if  a  bucket  of  ice 
water  had  been  thrown  in  their  faces.  Immor- 
tality was  a  mystery.  Something  one  might 
hope  for,  but  incapable  of  scientific  proof.  It 
was  something  most  people  vaguely  believed  in, 
but  they  felt  that  it  should  be  preached  with 
reservations.  Men  should  be  left  to  think  for 
themselves  on  such  a  difficult  question.  The 
gospel  of  an  improved  social  order  was  the  only 
message  for  the  pulpit.  The  gospel  of  an  im- 
proved social  order  only  touches  one-half  of 
human  nature.  It  deals  with  practical  prob- 
lems and  makes  religion  real.  Men  also  have 
souls  and  spiritual  longings.  Their  hopes  and 
aspirations  reach  beyond  the  problems  of  this 
life.  Paul  realised  this  need.  Either  Christ 
was  risen  or  Christianity  was  a  delusion. 

He  was  talking  with  people  who  had  to  face 
the  brutal  persecutions  of  the  Roman  power.  If 
they  were  to  give  their  wives  up  to  jail  and  their 
children  to  the  beasts  and  their  bodies  to  be 
burned  they  had  to  know  the  foundation  of  their 
hopes.  Christ  had  risen.  They  also  should  rise. 
The  Gospel  was  not  only  good  news  of  human 
emancipation  and  an  improved  social  order,  it 
was  the  message  of  immortality.    Life  was  one. 


i6o  On  to  Christ 


It  was  spiritual,  and  they  that  live  in  the  spirit 
should  not  only  live  here  in  persecution  and 
rejection,  but  they  should  live  eternally  with 
God  in  power  and  righteousness. 

The  Fear  of  Mysticism 

We  have  been  too  much  afraid  of  being  called 
mystics.  Life  is  full  of  mystery,  and  the  mys- 
tery of  immortality  does  not  detract  from  its 
truth ;  it  only  gives  a  new  and  larger  meaning  to 
life  as  a  whole.  It  does  not  take  away  the  real- 
ity of  this  life  but  rather  completes  it.  If  this 
life  were  all,  we  would  have  to  face  an  insoluble 
enigma.  Righteousness  does  not  always  prevail. 
Justice  is  not  always  attained.  The  Book  of 
Life  does  not  balance.  We  are  left  with  our 
accounts  in  confusion  and  our  ideals  floating  in 
the  air  without  any  foundation.  The  assurance 
of  immortal  life  changes  this  situation.  Eight- 
eousness  does  prevail  and  justice  is  attained. 
The  Book  of  Life  does  balance  and  all  its 
accounts  are  put  in  order.  The  ideals  of  our 
noblest  minds  are  based  on  the  eternal  princi- 
ples of  truth  and  reach  their  full  fruition  in 
the  life  of  the  spirit,  where  there  is  no  sin  nor 
suffering  to  destroy  the  harmony  of  life. 

The  soul  that  has  this  assurance  bravely  lives 
in  this  life  now  and  it  bravely  dies  for  right- 


Practical  Immortality  i6i 

eousness,  knowing  that  it  lives  again  with  God 
in  the  real  life  of  the  spirit.  It  leaves  the  mys- 
tery of  death  in  the  hands  of  the  Eternal  Father 
and  glories  in  the  prospects  of  wonderful  ex- 
periences in  a  new  existence  where  pain  and 
tears  do  not  exist. 

The  Influence  of  the  War 

The  Great  War  has  brought  home  to  us  as 
never  before  man's  need  of  this  faith. 

If  a  man's  life  is  his  only  possession  and  this 
life  is  all,  how  can  we  ask  any  man  to  be  blown 
to  atoms  to  make  our  life  easy  or  even  to  make 
the  world  safe  for  democracy?  If  this  life  is  all 
we  had  better  compromise  with  our  principles 
and  sacrifice  our  honour  and  make  ourselves  as 
comfortable  as  possible.  We  deteriorate  to  the 
level  of  the  dumb  beasts  of  the  field.  We  eat 
and  drink,  we  sleep  and  wake  again.  We  are 
and  are  not.  It  is  a  hopeless  level  of  material 
monotony.  This  is  not  the  life  that  stirs  our 
souls.  If  this  life  is  only  the  beginning  of  life 
and  if  it  continues  throughout  eternity  we  not 
only  see  the  basis  for  asking  many  men  to  make 
the  supreme  sacrifice,  we  also  get  the  founda- 
tion for  every  noble  aspiration  and  effort. 
Without  this  foundation  self-sacrifice  is  absurd 
and  noble  efforts  are  a  delusion. 


i62  On  to  Christ 


The  New  Idea  of  Death 

The  trouble  has  been  in  the  way  we  have 
thought  about  death.  Death  has  been  looked 
upon  as  the  culminating  misfortune  of  old  age. 
The  grave  has  been  considered  the  junk-heap  of 
worn-out  human  machines.  This  conception 
makes  death  sordid  and  ignoble.  In  truth  it  is 
the  Beautiful  Adventure.  It  is  the  step  from 
the  full-grown  materialistic  world  to  the  beauti- 
ful but  shadowy  spiritual  existence. 

The  swinging  portals  have  opened  so  occa- 
sionally in  the  average  human  life  and  it  has 
been  accompanied  with  such  bitter  heart  aches 
that  our  eyes  have  failed  to  see  the  light.  The 
doors  have  been  opening  more  often  in  the  days 
of  war  and  sorrow  we  have  recently  passed 
through.  Young  lives  and  strong  men  have 
been  entering  into  the  world  beyond  in  a  con- 
stantly growing  stream.  It  is  no  longer  the 
resting-place  of  worn-out  human  machines.  It 
is  the  home  of  our  best  and  bravest. 

This  fact  gives  death  and  the  grave  a  new 
aspect.  Are  all  the  hopes,  ambitions,  and  enthu- 
siasms of  these  brave  men  ended  too?  We  can- 
not believe  it.  We  must  rather  agree  with  Mat- 
thew Arnold  when  he   revisited  Rugby  and 


Practical  Immortality  163 

thought  of  his  father's  strong  personality  and 
said, 

*'0  strong  soul,  by  what  shore 
Tarriest  thou  now  ?    For  that  force, 
Surely,  has  not  been  left  vain 
Somewhere,  surely,  afar 
In  the  sounding  labour-house  vast 
Of  being,  is  practised  that  strength, 
Zealous,  beneficent,  firm ! ' ' 

So  we  believe  that  the  strength  of  our  modern 
crusaders  is  not  buried  in  Flanders'  fields  or  in 
the  plains  of  Picardy  but  is  still  living  and  at 
work  in  God's  own  Kingdom. 

Immortality  the  Creator  of  Heroes 

The  assurance  of  immortality  is  not  only  the 
comfort  for  those  that  mourn,  it  is  also  the 
creator  of  heroes.  The  man  who  knows  that 
his  soul  does  not  die  but  that  it  is  sure  to 
live  in  a  better  life  is  the  man  who  gives  him- 
self for  spiritual  principles  and  noble  ideals. 
These  things  are  the  real  issues  of  life,  and 
personality  and  character  grow  from  contact 
with  and  loyalty  to  them. 

Thomas  Huxley  was  a  great  and  true  man, 
but  he  was  an  absolute  materialist.  In  his  let- 
ter to  Charles  Kingsley  on  the  death  of  his  little 
son  he  bitterly  complains  of  Saul's  words, 
*'What  advantageth  it  me,  if  the  dead  rise  not? 


164  On  to  Christ 


let  us  eat  and  drink;  for  tomorrow  we  die." 
Huxley  was  thinking  of  a  parent's  natural  grief 
at  the  loss  of  his  child.  Paul  was  speaking  of 
the  philosophy  of  life  that  should  be  willing  to 
face  persecution  and  death  for  a  spiritual  prin- 
ciple. If  that  principle  was  false  what  need  is 
there  of  suffering  for  it  ? 

Many  people  who  consider  immortality  as  an 
impracticable  and  unnecessary  question  make 
the  same  mistake.  The  man  who  fails  to  live 
in  the  light  of  immortality  may  be  a  good  citizen 
and  kindly  neighbour,  but  he  is  apt  to  be  a 
thoroughgoing  materialist  even  as  Huxley  was. 
And  the  materialist  always  misunderstands  the 
message  of  immortality  from  lack  of  spiritual 
appreciation.  Immortality  is  the  one  thing  that 
makes  every  moment  of  life  tingle  with  poten- 
tialities. We  are  all  living  in  the  very  door- 
way of  spiritual  life.  In  a  moment  we  may 
cross  the  threshold.  No  man  can  realise  this 
without  having  immortal  life  constantly  bub- 
bling in  his  veins. 

This  is  the  real  fountain  of  perpetual  youth. 
The  body  may  grow  old,  but  the  heart  and  soul 
continue  young.  Interests  do  not  wear  out,  and 
activities  do  not  cease.  They  only  change.  The 
constant  assurance  of  our  continued  existence 
is  a  joy  to  the  young  man  facing  danger  and 
death,  and  a  solace  to  the  old  man  who  has 


Practical  Immortality  165 

spent  his  strength  in  a  good  cause.  His  waning 
physical  strength  is  only  an  opportunity  for  the 
growth  of  spiritual  power.  Hope  and  ambition 
continue  to  bubble  in  his  veins  and  perpetual 
youth  is  his  daily  portion. 

The  men  in  the  trenches  had  the  vision.  They 
do  not  speak  of  *^ dying.''  They  talk  of  *  Agoing 
west."  In  this  phrase  they  sum  up  the  hopes 
and  ambitions  of  ^yq  hundred  years.  '*  "West- 
ward ho!''  was  the  call  to  adventure.  It  was 
the  rallying-cry  of  those  who  sought  a  new  life 
in  a  New  World.  The  bold  buccaneers  turned 
their  prow  toward  the  setting  sun  in  search  of 
wealth  and  opportunity.  The  buccaneers  of 
the  spirit  take  up  their  cry.  The  world  of  their 
dreams  is  before  them.  They  are  good  soldiers 
of  a  worthy  cause  and  into  the  Setting  Sun  they 
plough  their  way.  The  purple  and  crimson  of 
the  dying  day  beautifies  their  pathway. 

We  all  are  facing  this  adventure.  The  land 
of  our  dreams  and  hopes  is  before  us.  We  turn 
away  from  the  sordid  world  we  know  and 
bravely  face  the  unknown. 

Today  the  world  needs  this  message.  Its 
mystery  should  not  dim  our  eyes.  Our  hopes 
should  rather  encourage  us.  Dying  is  a  daily 
event.  As  we  see  the  brave  and  true  sail  away 
let  our  hearts  be  strong  and  our  souls  brave. 
*^Bon  voyage,  ye  Brave!"  is  ^ur  parting  cry. 


i66  On  to  Christ 


In  time  we  too  shall  pack  our  earthly  posses- 
sions away  and  with  our  souls  stripped  for 
action  step  on  the  ship  that  carries  us  over  the 
unknown  sea  for  that  port  in  the  land  of  the 
spirit  where  all  brave  hearts  shall  find  a  home. 
We  tarry  here  for  a  few  days  and  then  in  the 
New  World  we  will  make  our  home  forever. 


ON   TO   CHEIST 

WE  now  come  to  the  conclusion  of  the 
whole  matter.  We  have  been  studying 
some  unpleasant  things,  and  we  have 
been  contemplating  some  sublime  truths.  We 
now  find  ourselves  in  the  same  position  as  a 
small  boy  who  had  been  working  for  some  time 
at  a  problem  in  mathematics.  He  has  been 
carrying  on  his  work  step  by  step.  He  knows 
where  he  has  come  from  and  the  steps  by  which 
he  has  progressed,  but  suddenly  his  whole  inter- 
est becomes  centred  on  one  subject.  He  wants 
to  know,  *'What  is  the  answer  T'  We  too  want 
to  know  the  answer  to  the  needs  of  the  present 
time. 

I  believe  this  answer  is  found  in  Jesus  Christ. 

Christ  is  the  life  of  the  Church,  and  her  funda- 
mental purpose  is  to  make  Christ  known  to  the 
world.  There  must  be  some  organisation  of 
Christ's  followers  to  make  their  work  and  mes- 
sage effective.  Christians  do  not  want  to  degen- 
erate into  a  mere  mob.  Cooperation,  division 
of  labour,  and  the  need  of  developing  all  re- 

167 


1 68  On  to  Christ 


sources  and  meeting  all  opportunities  require 
organisation.  The  great  trouble  has  been  that 
we  have  become  so  much  interested  in  the  organ- 
isation that  we  have  often  thought  of  it  as  a 
wonderful  product  of  man's  creative  genius. 
We  have  thought  of  its  credal  statements  and 
official  positions  as  the  essential  things.  Paul 
tried  to  teach  the  early  Christians  that  the 
Church  was  not  an  organisation  but  an  organ- 
ism. He  told  them  that  Christ  was  the  head — 
the  dominating  and  controlling  power.  Each 
individual  member  was  intimately  associated 
with  both  the  head  and  with  each  other  in  pro- 
ducing an  organism  that  functioned  in  all  its 
parts.  We  can  see  the  twinkle  in  the  apostle's 
eye  as  he  tries  to  show  them  how  essential  it  is 
for  the  different  members  of  the  Church  to 
fulfil  different  offices  and  function  in  different 
ways.  He  says,  **If  the  ear  shall  say,  Because 
I  am  not  the  eye,  I  am  not  of  the  body;  is  it 
therefore  not  of  the  body!  If  the  body  were  an 
eye,  where  were  the  hearing!  If  the  whole 
were  hearing  where  were  the  smelling  T'  Any 
child  can  realise  the  absurdity  of  having  one 
great  rolling  eye  instead  of  a  normal  body. 
Who  would  want  to  be  all  ear?  Ears  are  not 
beautiful  at  their  best,  but  they  are  a  most 
useful  article  when  we  want  to  hear.  We  all 
want  to  hear,  but  we  all  want  to  do  a  good  deal 


On  to  Christ  169 


more.  We  want  to  hear  and  see  and  smell  and 
eat  and  walk  and  talk.  A  great  variety  of  func- 
tions require  a  great  variety  of  members — so 
it  is  with  the  Church. 

It  must  be  organised,  but  it  should  be  organ- 
ised as  an  organism  with  every  member  con- 
nected by  nerves  and  muscles  with  the  brain- 
that  is,  with  Christ. 

This  is  the  message  that  Paul  gave  to  the 
church  at  Corinth — the  church  that  had  al- 
ready sown  the  seeds  of  the  denominational 
spirit  by  saying,  ^'I  am  of  Paul;  and  I  of 
Apollos;  and  I  of  Cephas;  and  I  of  Christ." 
Paul  answers  this  narrow  sectarian  spirit  by 
asking, — **Is  Christ  divided?  was  Paul  cruci- 
fied for  you?  or  were  ye  baptised  in  the  name 
of  Paul?'' 

Here  the  apostle  points  the  one  way  for  the 
wiping  out  of  denominational  distinctions.  They 
all  confess  Christ.  The  nearer  they  g^i  to 
Christ  the  nearer  they  get  together. 

Christ  gives  us  the  one  unifying  principle  on 
which  to  build  a  federation  of  denominational 
interests  which  will  cease  scandalising  the  world 
by  its  ecclesiastical  quarrels  and  theological 
hair-splittings.  It  gives  us  the  oneness  of  ap- 
peal which  opens  the  door  to  the  opportunity 
of  the  New  Era. 

Besides  having  Christ  dominate  the  organi- 


170  On  to  Christ 


sati,on  of  the  Churcli  so  that  it  is  in  truth  a 
epiritual  organism,  and  besides  being  the  one 
unifying  power  that  ought  to  bring  all  the 
Churches  that  confess  His  name  into  some  form 
of  close  federation  for  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  advancement  of  His  kingdom  on  earth,  there 
is  one  more  important  thing  that  Christ  does. 

He  appeals  to  many  people  who  are  irrespon- 
sive to  any  church.  The  Churches  are  suffering 
for  their  sins  and  weaknesses  of  the  past.  Every 
church  has  failed  in  some  cases  to  say  the  right 
word  or  do  the  right  thing.  These  mistakes 
have  hurt  sensitive  or  fretful  hearts  and  the 
grievances  have  been  magnified.  The  Churches 
appeal  to  many  people,  but  Christ  appeals  to 
every  one.  They  respond  to  His  winsomeness 
and  strength.  His  fearlessness  and  self-sacrifice, 
His  common-sense  and  spiritual  vision.  He  will 
draw  the  men  of  the  New  Era,  as  He  has  drawn 
the  men  of  every  age,  from  sin,  selfishness,  and 
indifference. 

The  compelling  power  of  His  spirit  has  lost 
none  of  its  strength.  When  it  touches  human 
hearts  they  show  the  fruits  of  the  spirit  in 
goodness,  righteousness,  and  truth.  Evil  com- 
munications, malice,  thefts,  and  all  selfishness 
are  banished  when  Christ  takes  possession  of 
the  soul.  This  spiritual  power  appeals  to  the 
best  elements  of  human  nature  and  stirs  the 


On  to  Christ  171 


noblest  impulses  of  mankind.  Good  as  it  is  to 
stimulate  men's  interest  in  noble  thinking, 
purity  of  life  and  unselfish  service,  Christ  does 
more.  Christ  gives  men  the  power  that  saves 
them  from  their  weakness  and  failures  and  that 
redeems  them  from  sin. 

One  of  the  divine  mysteries  often  overlooked 
in  modern  life  is  the  way  in  which  the  power 
of  Christ  is  redeeming  the  lost  every  day. 
Harold  Begbie  has  tried  to  tell  this  story  of 
jnodern  miracles  in  his  books  **  Twice-Born 
Men''  and  ** Souls  in  Action,"  and  he  has  done 
it  well.  This  story  was  first  written  on  the 
shores  of  Galilee,  by  the  dusty  highways  of 
Samaria,  and  in  the  crowded  streets  of  Jerusa- 
lem when  the  carpenter's  Son  called  the  fisher- 
men to  leave  their  nets  and  gave  His  message  to 
His  own  day  and  generation.  It  was  written  in 
letters  of  blood  on  the  Cross  of  Calvary.  This 
story  has  come  down  through  two  thousand 
years  of  experience.  Savonarola  in  Florence, 
Huss  in  Bohemia,  Luther  in  Germany,  Calvin  in 
Geneva,  Knox  in  Scotland,  and  Wesley  in  Eng- 
land strove  to  make  it  clear  to  their  own 
generation. 

Today  you  can  see  walking  miracles  in  any 
gospel  mission  or  Salvation  Army  barracks. 
You  can  find  them  in  the  churches.  But  still 
many  fail  to  realise  this  power  of  God  that  has 


172  On  to  Christ 


been  and  is  still  being  revealed  through  Jesus 
Christ. 

The  Churches  preach  it  and  theology  defines 
it  and  tells  the  laws  of  its  operation,  and  yet  the 
world  has  failed  to  grasp  its  significance.  In 
these  unique  and  startling  manifestations  it  is 
a  soul's  experience  and  as  such  is  hard  to 
explain.  These  miracles  do  exist,  and  any  one 
who  so  desires  may  see  them  and  study  them  to 
his  heart's  content. 

Some  of  the  disciples  of  Christ  had  no  experi- 
ence on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  or  at  the 
bedside  of  Jairus'  daughter,  where  the  dead  was 
brought  back  to  life.  So  some  men  in  every 
generation  are  faithful  disciples  of  Christ,  and 
yet  they  have  no  ecstasies  or  glowing  thrills  of 
emotion.  Andrew  may  have  been  one  of  these 
quiet,  faithful  fellows.  He  did  not  see  Christ 
transformed  and  he  did  not  see  Him  raise  the 
dead.  He  was  so  busy  bringing  others  to  his 
Master  that  he  lost  all  the  emotional  thrills  of 
the  religious  life.  He  was  just  as  good  an 
apostle  as  Peter,  but  he  was  of  a  different  kind 
of  a  temperament. 

Many  good  men  are  still  thinking  of  the  thrills 
of  emotion,  when  all  they  need  is  to  realise  that 
their  quiet  confidence  in  the  goodness  and  power 
of  Christ  have  opened  the  door  for  them  to  enter 
into  fellowship  with  Him.    They  need  strength 


On  to  Christ  173 


to  overcome  their  weakness.  They  need  His 
guidance  to  keep  the  pathway  of  truth  and  duty. 
They  need  His  presence  to  banish  evil  thoughts 
and  ennoble  their  ideals.  They  need  Christ, 
and  it  is  the  Church's  privilege  to  bring  Christ 
to  them. 

Many  efforts  have  been  made  to  make  Christ 
clear  to  men.  One  of  the  most  recent  of  these 
efforts  is  a  good  illustration  of  how  a  good 
purpose  is  frustrated  by  a  mistaken  psychology. 

Back  to  Christ 

A  few  years  ago  this  country  rang  with  the 
cry  **Back  to  Christ.''  This  was  the  spiritual 
call  of  a  past  age.  It  was  used  to  bring  men 
back  to  the  Man  of  Galilee  as  teacher,  friend, 
and  Saviour. 

Those  who  used  this  expression  forgot  that 
you  cannot  turn  back  the  hands  of  the  clock. 
They  move  forward  irresistibly.  This  constant 
movement  of  time  is  so  quiet  that  it  is  often 
overlooked.  Something  has  to  call  our  attention 
to  it. 

This  is  well  illustrated  in  Professor  L.  P. 
Jacks 's  story  **The  Magic  Formula,"  in  which 
he  shows  the  influence  two  boys  had  on  strangers 
and  on  themselves  by  asking  the  question, 
** Would  you  mind  telling  us  the  time?"    This 


174  ^^  ^^  Christ 


question  made  old  men  think  of  their  youth  and 
it  made  the  boys  themselves  interested  in  time 
and  eternity.  The  closing  incident  of  the  story 
tells  how  the  narrator,  one  of  the  boys,  gives 
to  his  friend  Billy,  the  hero,  an  essay  on 
** Translating  Time  into  Eternity."  Billy  re- 
turns the  essay  with  the  comment,  **0h,  I  trans- 
lated time  into  eternity  without  much  difficulty. 
But  it  was  plugging  ahead  all  the  time." 

It  is  plugging  ahead  all  the  time.  There  are 
no  pauses  at  wayside  stations  and  no  sidings  on 
which  it  can  get  lost.  There  are  no  return  trips 
for  Time.  It  plugs  ahead  resistlessly  and  re- 
morselessly. The  moment  and  the  day  come  but 
once,  and  then  they  are  translated  into  eternity. 

Youth  passes  away  like  a  pleasant  dream  in 
the  night.  Middle  age  is  only  a  short  day's 
work.  Youth  and  middle  age  fade  into  old  age 
before  we  realise  it.  We  cannot  go  back  to  our 
childhood,  with  its  innocent  belief  in  Fairies 
and  Golden  Islands  filled  with  treasures,  even 
if  we  would.  No  effort  of  our  imaginations  can 
make  the  woodlot  once  more  into  a  great  forest 
filled  with  wild  beasts  and  savage  men.  We  can- 
not clear  our  minds  of  the  ideas  and  methods 
of  thinking  that  have  been  developed  by  years 
of  careful  discipline.  No  more  can  we  go  back 
to  Christ.    The  world  has  changed.    Life  has 


On  to  Christ  175 


become  enlarged.  Ideas  have  developed.  Two 
thousand  years  have  left  their  mark  on  the 
whole  creation. 

The  Eoman  Empire  has  crumbled  into  decay 
and  passed  away.  Kings  and  emperors  have 
passed  before  us  as  a  pageant  of  yesterday. 
Democracy  now  sits  enthroned. 

Science  has  outgrown  its  early  childhood  and 
now  holds  the  respect  of  all  men.  Her  early 
struggles  in  the  laboratories  of  the  alchemists 
as  they  searched  for  the  PMlosopher's  Stone 
and  the  elixir  of  life  have  given  place  to  care- 
ful research  based  on  long  years  of  recorded 
experiments. 

The  wildest  dreams  of  the  ancients  are  now 
but  commonplace  affairs  of 'daily  life.  The 
aeroplane  sweeps  through  the  air  under  the 
control  of  man's  hand.  The  wireless  carries 
our  messages  across  space.  The  X-ray  looks 
through  solid  matter. 

To  men  of  this  age  of  advancement  and 
progress  the  cry  *^Go  back!''  rings  a  discordant 
note.  They  are  going  ahead.  Back  of  them  are 
hard-fought  fields  and  lonely  vigils.  They  have 
fought  and  struggled  for  advancement.  They 
have  no  enthusiasm  or  interest  in  any  kind  of 
retreat.  It  is  out  of  harmony  with  their  mental 
processes. 


176  On  to  Christ 


The  rallying-cry  of  the  New  Era  must  be  **Oii 
to  Christ.'' 

We  cannot  turn  back  to  the  Man  of  Galilee — 
the  Suffering  Servant.  We  must  push  ahead  to 
the  Christ  of  God — the  living  triumphant  Christ, 
the  Saviour  of  men  from  sin  and  the  Saviour 
of  men  from  selfishness  and  petty  living. 

We  have  the  background  in  His  earthly  life. 
We  see  the  humility  and  friendliness  of  the 
Master ;  and  we  know  His  sympathy  and  power. 
We  join  with  the  poet  in  his  appreciation  of 
Christ  when  he  sings — 

**0  perfect  life  in  perfect  labour  writ." 

Every  one  recognises  the  truth  of  these  words. 
They  have  dignified  labour  and  glorified  unself- 
ishness. But  we  cannot  stop  here.  We  must  go 
on  with  the  poet  to  his  next  line — 

'*0  all  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King,  or  Priest." 

This  is  the  larger  experience  of  the  two,  and 
often  a  hard  journey  and  a  long  time  separates 
these  two  lines.  It  is  one  thing  to  think  well  of 
the  ** perfect  life  in  perfect  labour  writ,''  but 
it  is  far  more  personal  and  compelling  to  take 
the  man  who  lived  this  life  as  our  **  Comrade, 


On  to  Christ  177 


Servant,  King,  or  Priest.''  The  men  of  the 
New  Era  must  push  on  from  theoretical  appre- 
ciation to  personal  loyalty  and  obedience.  They 
have  to  follow  and  obey  a  living  Saviour  who, 
conquered  sin  and  death  by  His  own  death  on 
the  Cross.  They  do  not  stop  at  admiration,  but 
press  on  to  live  as  Christ  would  have  them  live 
here  and  now,  through  the  power  that  He  gives 
them. 

This  means  not  only  a  deeper  realisation  of 
Christ's  place  in  history,  but  it  requires  a  re- 
adjustment in  our  thoughts  as  to  what  He 
means  by  spirituality. 

**0n  to  Christ"  means  that  the  Church  must 
sound  forth  a  deeper  definition  of  spirituality 
than  it  has  ever  given  before.  In  the  past  it 
has  called  men  to  the  spirituality  of  the  closet — 
the  spirituality  of  conmiuning  with  God.  This 
is  only  a  half  definition  of  Christ's  spirituality. 
He  did  say  that  the  first  Commandment  was 
^*Thou  Shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
strength";  but  He  did  not  stop  there.  He  con- 
tinued His  definition  by  saying:  *^And  the  sec- 
ond is  like,  namely,  this.  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself.  There  is  none  other  Com- 
mandment greater  than  these." 

In  the  past  we  emphasised  the  first  half  of 
this  commandment  and  called  communing  with 


178  On  to   Christ 


God  spirituality.  Unconsciously  we  were  advo- 
cating a  form  of  selfishness.  It  was  the  selfish- 
ness of  the'  soul  losing  touch  with  men  in 
a  desire  for  self-culture  with  God.  Christ  not 
only  taught  that  spirituality  consisted  in  more 
than  selfish  soul  culture,  He  also  practised  it. 
He  spent  the  early  hours  of  the  morning  and 
the  night  in  prayer,  but  He  spent  His  days  in 
active  service  for  men. 

The  spirituality  of  soul  culture  has  failed  in 
its  appeal  to  men.  They  did  not  respond  to  it. 
It  lacked  meaning  and  reality.  The  Church  ad- 
vocated this  definition  until  the  people  turned 
away  in  despair.  Its  unintentional  selfishness 
sounded  a  discordant  note  that  many  shrank 
from.  This  failure  was  the  beginning  of  the 
other  failures  that  were  pointed  out  in  our 
first  chapter.  Music  and  stereopticon  lectures, 
popular  discussions  and  advertisements  were 
introduced  to  retrieve  the  mistake  of  ignoring 
the  heroism  of  Christ's  life  of  service  for 
others.    These  substitutes  failed  to  grip  souls. 

The  men  of  the  New  Era  need  the  full  spirit- 
uality of  Christ.  They  need  to  be  called  back  to 
the  love  of  God  that  they  may  find  adequate 
strength  to  overcome  their  own  personal  sins 
and  also  find  help  and  inspiration  for  serving 
others.  Tliis  is  what  we  mean  by  On  to  Christ. 
It  is  a  step  forward.    It  is  an  effort  to  grasp 


On  to  Christ  179 


the  full  significance  of  His  definition  of  spirit- 
uality. 

There  are  some  at  least,  disciples  it  may  be 
of  the  Religion  of  the  Inarticulate,  who  have 
grasped  the  significance  of  Christ's  teaching 
on  spirituality  without  fully  realising  that  it 
comes  from  Him.  That  is  the  only  possible 
explanation  of  His  beautiful  parable,  which 
some  one  has  already  named  the  Parable  of  the 
Great  Surprise.  In  this  parable  He  pictures 
the  nations  of  the  earth  gathered  for  judgment 
while  the  King  di^ddes  them  into  the  righteous 
and  unrighteous.  He  says  to  those  on  His  right : 
'*Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the 
kingdom  that  was  prepared  for  you  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world :  for  I  was  an  hungered, 
and  ye  gave  me  meat:  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye 
gave  me  drink;  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took 
me  in:  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me:  I  was  sick, 
and  ye  visited  me:  I  was  in  prison,  and  ye 
came  unto  me.  Then  shall  the  righteous  answer 
him,  saying.  Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  an  hun- 
gered, and  fed  thee!  or  thirsty,  and  gave  thee 
drink?  When  saw  we  thee  a  stranger,  and  took 
thee  in?  or  naked,  and  clothed  thee?  or  when 
saw  we  thee  sick,  or  in  prison,  and  came  unto 
thee? 

'*And  the  King  shall  answer  and  say  unto 
them.  Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  Inasmuch  as  ye 


i8o  On  to   Christ 


have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 

This  is  not  a  substitution  of  social  service  for 
faith.  It  is  an  unconscious  faith  manifesting 
itself  in  the  life  of  service  for  others. 

This  is  Christ's  way  of  showing  us  how  the 
Eeligion  of  the  Inarticulate  is  sometimes  crys- 
tallised. A  clearer  emphasis  of  Christ's  mean- 
ing of  spirituality  will  reach  such  souls.  They' 
will  be  helped  and  strengthened  and  the  Church 
of  the  Christ  will  advance  His  purpose  on  Earth 
by  this  definition. 

The  New  Era  needs  Christ.  He  is  still  the 
Sa\dour  of  men  and  the  hope  of  the  World. 

Onto  Christ! 

Let  the  new  day  come  with  all  its  problems. 
He  can  solve  them. 

On  to  Christ! 

Wars  cannot  dim  His  love  and  peace  cannot 
hide  His  glory. 

On  to  Christ! 

This  was  the  light  in  the  darkness  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  It  will  still  be  the  light  of  the 
New  Day. 

On  to  Christ ! 


Pr'nceton  Theological  Seminary  Libraries 


1    1012  01236  2911 


DATE  DUE 

f^W-J^ 

,,    .               i 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  US. A. 

iii 

iill 

jiiljilijijl 

ill 

rijinniinniiiiti 

I0IB 

itftiiiihit 

iii^iiii 

iiipiiiiliil 


'ii'iS! 

■"miim 

iijil 

Hi 

iiiiiiil 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'iiiii^i'iiiii 


'^liiilisiii^Pli^^i^ii^ii^i^i 


